preparing for first reset: how many kittens?

Solution 1:

Around 50 paragon for your first run ought to be good, from a reset at 120 kittens, but it's more a matter of opinion and how long you can stand to push the first run without the bonus.

The general idea in most strategies around the first few resets is to make the most out of the paragon production bonus, and reduce the long run time on future runs. The bonus is a flat 1% per point up through the first 150 points (after that the diminishing returns kick in). As of your first post you would get 20 paragon and the later edit 33. Staying in the run until you can get a full 50% boost will make the game feel much faster, and as a consequence make getting even more paragon (like the next 100 points) much easier.

Anything else you can work in is a bonus. Getting Apocrypha for the religion reset bonus is a great thing - you don't need to use it at all except right before the reset, or the reset itself will do it for you, with just a smidge of value shaved off. Some people find selling off helpful; I find it too much work. Most everything else that carries over can wait until you have the paragon stocked up and speeding you up.