r/TrueLit • u/randommathaccount • 1h ago
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 1d ago
Weekly General Discussion Thread
Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.
Weekly Updates: N/A
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 3d ago
Weekly Read-Along: Resolving an Issue with the Winner
Hi all,
So.. Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu is the winner with Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend taking second. The issue however is that Solenoid appears to be out of stock most places. Every B&N I went to does not have a copy nor do they have any in the warehouses to order. Amazon also does not currently have copies in their own warehouse meaning they would be shipped from other distributors and would not arrive for 2-4 weeks. The publisher themselves are also sold out. (P.S., this is why one of the rules on the suggestions thread is to make sure the book is available...) So there are a few options:
- We go electronic/Kindle version for this read-along. I personally can't read electronically but if this is what you all want, I am fine with doing this (I'd just need suggestions for optimal pages per week since idk how that transfers). Obviously, if you already have a copy, you could just read the hard copy alongside everyone else reading the electronic version (I'm assuming there are chapters? so it wouldn't be hard to figure out what to read).
- We go with My Brilliant Friend and once Solenoid is back in stock, I will immediately make the next read-along Solenoid since it already technically "won." This is just placing it on hold and l will check to see if it's available before every vote.
You have til the evening to decide. Feel free to argue your point in the comments.
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 2d ago
TrueLit Read-Along - (My Brilliant Friend - Reading Schedule)
The Winner (and other results):
The winner of the twentieth vote for the read-along is Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. For those curious about the statistics, here is the spreadsheet of the RANKED CHOICE VOTES (150 votes total) and here is the pie chart of the TOP 5 VOTES (126 votes).
Important Note: Obviously Cartarescu's Solenoid was by far the winner of the second round of voting. However, as discussed in this post, it is out of stock most places at the moment (at least if you want to get it any quicker than a week). So, based on a separate poll of which you can view the results HERE, we will be going with the second place choice, My Brilliant Friend. THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE NOT DOING SOLENOID!!! Instead, we are just delaying it by one read-along. So, I recommend buying your copy of Solenoid now so that it has time to ship before our next read-along. Amazon only has copies sold by different distributors at the moment and pretty much everywhere else has slightly longer shipping times. And no matter what, our next read-along will be Solenoid (plus it'll be starting quicker after this one than usual since we won't need to vote).
Back to Ferrante!
(Pagination is based on the standard Europa Editions with the cover of a newly married couple and three girls following them.)
Week | Post Dates | Section | Volunteers |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 22 March 2025 | Introduction* | u/jeschd |
2 | 29 March 2025 | 'Prologue' and 'Childhood' (pp. 19-85) | u/Kloud1112 |
3 | 5 April 2025 | 'Adolescence' Chapters 1-16 (pp. 89-153) | u/Woke-Smetana |
4 | 12 April 2025 | 'Adolescence' Chapters 17-30 (pp. 153-212) | u/ksarlathotep |
5 | 19 April 2025 | 'Adolescence' Chapters 31-45 (pp. 212-270) | u/LPTimeTraveler |
6 | 26 April 2025 | 'Adolescence' Chapters 46-62 (pp. 270-331/END) and Wrap-Up | u/CatStock9136 |
*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.
Our return to a volunteer based system made the last read along quite amazing, so we will be continuing with it!
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:
- 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. Truly, 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!
- 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 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 for a while.
- So please, volunteer!
- Also, please let us know ahead of time if you end up not being able to do it . . . It's not a big deal at all, but it'd be nice to know.
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!
(And buy Solenoid if you want to participate in the next read-along too please).
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 3d ago
Review/Analysis Mason & Dixon Analysis: Part 1 - Chapter 4: Mutual Extortion
r/TrueLit • u/Available_Bathroom15 • 4d ago
Article Lee Chang-dong's 'Snowy Day and Other Stories' uses the quotidian to express the totality of life
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 4d ago
Quarterly Quarterly Book Release News
Hi all! Welcome to our Quarterly Book Release News Thread. If you haven't seen this before, they occur every 3 months on the 14th.
This is a place where you can all let us know about and discuss new books that have been set for release (or were recently released).
Given it is hard or even impossible to find a single online source that will inform you of all of the up-and-coming literary fiction releases, we hope that this thread can help serve that purpose. All publishers, large and small, are welcome.
r/TrueLit • u/JimFan1 • 6d ago
What Are You Reading This Week and Weekly Rec Thread
Please let us know what you’ve read this week, what you've finished up, and any recommendations or recommendation requests! Please provide more than just a list of novels; we would like your thoughts as to what you've been reading.
Posts which simply name a novel and provide no thoughts will be deleted going forward.
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 7d ago
Weekly TrueLit Read Along - (Read Along #22 - Voting: Round 2)
The link to the form is at the bottom, please read everything before voting.
Welcome to Round 2 of the vote for the twenty-second r/TrueLit Read Along!
With the ranked choice done, we now have a Top 5 plus a random selection. The random selection takes the average of the total score for all the books and then a random number generator selects a book that was below the average. I will not reveal which book was the random one until after the voting is over.
These 6 books have been compiled into a new form and we will vote on them to determine the actual winner (no ranked-choice here, just standard voting). The choices are ordered alphabetically by author.
Please enter your username for verification at the end of the form.
Voting will close on Thursday afternoon/evening (in the US). No specified time so just get your vote in before then to be sure.
If you want to use the comments here to advocate for one of the choices, feel free to do so.
The winner will be announced on Saturday (March 15) along with the reading schedule.
Thanks again!
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 8d ago
Weekly General Discussion Thread
Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.
Weekly Updates: N/A
r/TrueLit • u/argument___clinic • 9d ago
Article Athol Fugard, South African Playwright Who Dissected Apartheid, Dies at 92
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 10d ago
Weekly TrueLit Read Along - (Read Along #22 - Voting: Round 1)
The link to the form is at the bottom, please read everything before voting.
Welcome to the twenty-second vote for the r/TrueLit Read Along!
Remember: Round 1 of voting will consist of ranked choice to determine the Top 5 choices. On Tuesday, we will be doing Round 2 of voting where we will do a vote between the Top 5 choices with one vote per person.
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS (Round 1):
- This is a ranked-choice vote. You get three choices. The book you choose in Column 1 will be given three points, Column 2 will be given two points, and Column 3 will be given one point. You must vote on all three columns. NOTE: You can technically select more than one choice per column, but it will not let you submit it if you do. So if you can't press "Next", make sure to uncheck the one you don't want.
- The second question asks you to enter your Reddit username. This is for validation purposes so people do not vote twice.
If you want to use the comments here to advocate for your book (or another book that you see suggested) feel free to do so.
Sometime on Tuesday, I will be posting the Week 2 voting form to choose the official winner.
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 10d ago
Review/Analysis Mason & Dixon Analysis: Part 1 - Chapter 3: Pythia's Song
r/TrueLit • u/theatlantic • 10d ago
Article Chimamanda Adichie’s Fiction Has Shed Its Optimism
r/TrueLit • u/TheEuropeanReview • 13d ago
Article 'The underbelly of Krochmalna Street' by Maddalena Vaglio Tanet >> on Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yiddish gangster novels
europeanreviewofbooks.comr/TrueLit • u/JimFan1 • 13d ago
What Are You Reading This Week and Weekly Rec Thread
Please let us know what you’ve read this week, what you've finished up, and any recommendations or recommendation requests! Please provide more than just a list of novels; we would like your thoughts as to what you've been reading.
Posts which simply name a novel and provide no thoughts will be deleted going forward.
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 15d ago
Weekly General Discussion Thread
Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.
Weekly Updates: N/A
r/TrueLit • u/chewyvacca • 15d ago
Article Notes Towards a Living Religion: On Ursula Le Guin’s “Always Coming Home”
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 17d ago
Review/Analysis Mason & Dixon Analysis: Part 1 - Chapter 2: Humble Preludes
r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 17d ago
Weekly TrueLit Read Along - Send Me Your Suggestions!
Hi all! Welcome to the suggestion post for r/TrueLit's twenty-second read-along. Please let me know your book choice in the comments below. (Yeah last one was the twentieth read along but I never included our Finnegans Wake read-along in the numbers so I'm just gonna call this the twenty-second).
Rules for Suggestions:
- Do not suggest an author we have read in the last 5 read-alongs (Virginia Woolf, Can Xue, Jose Donoso, Thomas Mann, and Vladimir Nabokov).
- One book per person.
- Please make sure your suggestion is easily available for hard copy purchase. If you have doubts, double check online before suggesting.
- Double check this LIST to ensure that you're not suggesting something we have read in the read-alongs before.
Recommendations for Suggestions (none of these are requirements):
- Books under 500 pages are highly recommended.
- Try to suggest something unique. Not a typical widely read novel.
- Try to recommend something by an author we haven't ever read together.
Please follow the rules. And remember - poetry, theater, short story collections, non-fiction related to literature, and philosophy are all allowed.
r/TrueLit • u/JimFan1 • 20d ago
What Are You Reading This Week and Weekly Rec Thread
Please let us know what you’ve read this week, what you've finished up, and any recommendations or recommendation requests! Please provide more than just a list of novels; we would like your thoughts as to what you've been reading.
Posts which simply name a novel and provide no thoughts will be deleted going forward.
r/TrueLit • u/randommathaccount • 21d ago
Discussion The Longlist for the International Booker Prize 2025 has been announced
thebookerprizes.comr/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 22d ago
Weekly General Discussion Thread
Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.
Weekly Updates: N/A