The letter is very personal and long, about which he writes:

It's January 1, 8pm. I nearly didn't press go on this, and I am clearly delirious in places. It's very personal, but I feel in a not corny way that U2 has a very intimate relationship with our audience… so I'm going for it.

...You should not have time to read this.
If you do get to the end of it then you are probably on the same painkillers as me.

Bono also has some thoughts on "the blogosphere."

It's enough to put a fella off free speech... the problem about finding out what people think is...you find out what they think. Who are these people? Well if they put their real names to their invective then I guess they are people like me - people with the audacity to think they have a thought or a feeling that others should hear about… if they are hiding, I'm not interested.

He says this will be his only public letter for the first part of the year as he concentrates on his recovery. I hope everyone sends some good thoughts Bono's way.