u/pregnantchihuahua3

Hi all, here is the announcement for our 30th, 31st, and 32nd read-along where we are taking a slightly different track. We will be reading a series of three plays all having to do with 'bad parties in literature.'

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be reading, in this order:

1. "The Birthday Party" by Harold Pinter
2. "The Bald Soprano" by Eugene Ionesco
3. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" by Edward Albee

Schedule:

• The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
  • Begin reading on October 24
    • Live discussion thread open between October 24-31
  • Finish reading on October 31
    • Final discussion opens on October 31
• The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco
  • Begin reading on November 7
    • Live discussion thread open between November 7-14
  • Finish reading on November 14
    • Final discussion opens on November 14
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
  • Begin reading on November 21
    • Live discussion thread open between November 21-28
  • Finish reading on November 28
    • Final discussion opens on November 28
• Final thematic trilogy discussion opens on December 5

All threads will have potential spoilers. Please keep spoilers for the end of the plays out of the Live Discussion Thread and please keep discussion of the play as a whole reserved for the Final Discussion Thread. No volunteers needed.

Every play is available online for FREE!!! Please feel free to use these or get your hard copies by the first day of reading.

Hi all,

For coming read-alongs, we will be trying something new. As stated before, voting typically ends up somewhere between 50-150 people voting for a book while only around 4-8 at most participate in the read along. So, things do have to change.

Based on suggestions by u/Federico_it, and discussion with other mods, we will be doing a more curated selection of books for coming read alongs. Moderators, long time and active subscribers, and those who have regularly participated and/or volunteered for read-alongs will be selecting the novels.

This will allow for a more exciting series of books rather than 19th and 20th century postmodernist or modernist novels, while also ensuring books are diverse in style and type. Plus, it seems fair to allow those who have contributed long term to both the subreddit and the read-alongs to tailor the read alongs to what they would like to read.

This is not punitive in any sense to the community, nor is it attempting to remove any sense of democracy, it is simply a step we are taking to hopefully ensure the read-alongs continue with decent amounts of participation and less stress in terms of running them. We are open to change if this model does not work out after testing it out a few times.

As always, questions, comments, and concerns are welcome. If you would like to be a part of the curating team, please let me know here or via DM, but please only do so if you are a long time and active user or a regular participant/volunteer in read-alongs.

Thank you all as always.

Hi all.

This is just a general update for the read-alongs that have been happening for a few years on the sub. You may have noticed it's been a few weeks since the last one ended without a new vote.

We have decided to continue the read-alongs at a slower rate. There has been a drastic decrease in participation for these read-alongs, sometimes leaving the in-depth posts written by our volunteers without comments, or with a single comment at most. On top of this, even for books that have been hyped up, we have been getting fewer and fewer volunteers all around.

Because of this, as stated, we have decided to forgo the old plan of taking a single week break between read-alongs. I have not fully decided what the final plan will be, but I've been thinking of just extending it to about a month between read-alongs. This means next week (4 weeks since Autobiography of Red ended) will be the beginning of our voting.

Please let me know if you have any comments or concerns about the update and I am happy to address them.

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

Weekly Updates: N/A

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

Weekly Updates: N/A

Hi all. This week's section for the read along covers the second half of the novel and the Wrap-Up.

No volunteer this week.

So, what did you think? Any interpretations? Did you enjoy it? Feel free to post your own analyses (long or short), questions, thoughts on the themes, or just brief comments below.

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

Weekly Updates: N/A

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

Weekly Updates: N/A

Hi all, and welcome to our Introductory post for our read-along of Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red.

Some general questions:

• What do you know about the author?
• Have you read them before? If so, what have you read?
• Have you read this work before?
• Is there something (a theme or otherwise) that new readers should keep an eye out for?
• Or, anything else you may think of!

Feel free to start reading! By next Saturday, you should read about the first half of the book, taking us from the first page until Chapter XXV. (The Tunnel) which ends on page 77 for the most common edition of the book.

If you would like to volunteer for that post or the following one, please let me know!

READING SCHEDULE

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

Weekly Updates: N/A

The winner for the twenty-ninth r/TrueLit read along is Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson! (There was no vote this time since last time this novel tied with the previous read-along choice).

Pagination is based on the Vintage Contemporaries version with the volcano on the front.

The Schedule

Week	Date	Section	Volunteers
1	15 August 2026	Introduction*	N/A
2	22 August 2026	Red Meat... - XXV. Tunnel (pp. 3-77)	N/A
3	29 August 2026	XXXVI. Aeroplane - Interview (pp. 78-149) and Wrap-Up	N/A

*This is not to discuss any introduction to the book, but to discuss what you may know about it or about the author prior to reading.

We use volunteers for each weekly post. So, please comment if you would like to volunteer for a specific week. When it comes time for you to make your post, u/Woke-Smetana will communicate with you ahead of time to make sure everything is looking good!

Volunteer Rules of Thumb:

1. Genuinely, do it how you want. The post could be a summary of the chapter with guided questions, your own analysis with guided questions, or even just the guided questions. Please volunteer knowing this shouldn't be a burden. If you want to contribute just by making the post with maybe 3-5 questions for readers to answer, that is more than enough!
2. Be willing to make the post at least somewhat early in the day on the Saturdays they should be posted. Before noon, if possible, but at least not waiting until the evening. (If you do have to delay it until the evening, let us know).
3. If we do not have a volunteer for a certain week or if the volunteer ends up not being able to make the post, we will just do the standard weekly post for that week that we've done before. So please, volunteer!
4. Also, please let us know ahead of time if you volunteered and end up not being able to do it. It's not a big deal at all, but it'd be nice to know so we're not sitting around waiting.

I am going to reiterate Rule 4. Please. Just let us know if you change your mind or end up getting busy.

Before next week's Introduction, buy your books so they have time to ship if necessary, and then once the introduction is posted you are free to start reading!

Thanks again everyone!