iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by The Read-Along

Scott C Bourgeois 💣 @scottybomb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

New featured novel means new podcast jumping-on point! #bookclub #readalong

The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

We're very excited to announce our podcast's nineteenth featured novel, "The Halter" by @darbymcdevitt.bsky.social! Join us on a weekly, chapter-by-chapter analysis and discussion of this sci-fi noir, available wherever fine books can be purchased!

A copy of the novel "The Halter" by Darby McDevitt on a brown background. The cover features an art deco edifice in front of the planet Mars. A detective's silhouette covers the planet, complete with fedora and collared trench coat. A ghostly woman walks in the foreground toward the edifice.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Ben is finally forced to take a moment to stop, reflect, and rest. It's Chapter Twenty-Five of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 454, "Unspoken Love" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4w8hddk #readalong #bookclub

An older Chinese man with white hair sits with a hand on his chin, looking wistfully off to the left. He's not saying anything, but his expression is calm, with the hint of a smile. He doesn't have to say anything.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The team makes one last-ditch play to stop the encroaching doom. It's Chapter Twenty-Four of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 453, "Chekhov's Schrödinger's Cat" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4pa91qk #readalong #bookclub

A ghostly, transparent, short-tailed cat, sitting on a shelf against a white wall. The cat may-or-may not be dead, and may go off in the third act. Because, you see, it's Chekhov's Schrödinger's Cat.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Anita and Scott spend 18 minutes being angry at Ben for being an idiot. It's Chapter Twenty-Three of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 452, "Refresh Before You Take On a Boss" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/3SyGD5g #readalong #bookclub

A Tarnished warrior in a suit of armour sits before glowing golden grace, relaxing and refreshing ahead of what will surely be a formidable boss encounter. From the video game "Elden Ring."

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

A sultry dance gets Ben what he needs to do a friend a favour. It's Chapter Twenty-Two of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 451, "A Little Spy Game" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4vsxMAs #readalong #bookclub

A still from the film "True Lies" in which Harry (played by Arnold Schwartzenegger) and Juno (played by Tia Carrere) have a sultry dance at a fancy party. He's a spy in a black tuxedo, she's bankrolling terrorism in a black little dress.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Ben attends a very party, and isn't too happy to be there. It's Chapter Twenty-One of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 450, "Mostly Blind" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4oEeQvT #readalong #bookclub

A very green eye on a man's face, which grows increasingly blurry the further from the iris you go. Did you know green is the rarest eye colour?

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

An unexpected journey through the history of Others. It's Chapter Twenty of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 449, "Bodies in Time" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/3S4RBPF #readalong #bookclub

A tryptich of a Babylonian woman holding an urn, a Chinese woman in a yellow outfit holding a butterfly, and an Italian soldier in World War 1. Under them is a timeline marking 623 BCE, 1057 CE, and 1916 CE. They are three people from different time periods, but all somehow connected by magic and fate.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Extorting a snake goes exactly as well as could be expected. It's Chapter Nineteen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 448, "The Percentage Chance of Every Roll" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/43iaq49 #readalong #bookclub

The math lady meme. A blonde woman looks intense, or maybe a bit confused, while high-level math equations float around her.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The team succeeds at losing at frisbee. Barely. It's Chapter Seventeen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 447, "They're Sportsy" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/43AzbZl #readalong #bookclub

Three men jump for a frisbee on a sunny day, two wearing red sport shirts, one in a white shirt on the other team. They're playing ultimate frisbee.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Team sports day kicks off with a deep dive into the damp. It's Chapter Seventeen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 446, "Piranha Monsters From the Damp" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4tQhL5Q #readalong #bookclub

A giant deep-sea monster with entirely too many teeth and glowing eyes squares off against a diver with a harpoon in an inky black abyss.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

An early Saturday morning meeting with the jinn. It's Chapter Sixteen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 445, "Mobster Vibes" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4flshOL #readalong #bookclub

A dangerous looking woman in a black business suit and sunglasses. Behind her sunglasses, firey eyes glow red.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Ben takes Mr. Tan to the vet. It's Chapter Fifteen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 444, "An Infohazard" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/49AAlYa #readalong #bookclub

$A smiling, older Asian man in glasses, surrounded by a fractal kaleidoscope of a young Asian woman's face repeating over and over again. Beware. If he speaks of her, her memory will live in your mind, too.$

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Debauched mayhem gives Ben and Adam the chance to enact a rescue. It's Chapter Fourteen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 443, "A Trickster God" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4en4kpT #readalong #bookclub

A shadow puppet of Semar, an old trickster diety of Indonesian mythology.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Ben and Adam get help from some shadows in a daring escape. It's Chapter Thirteen of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 442, "Exploiting Others" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4vO60PB #readalong #bookclub

A shadowy creature with six glowing red eyes and a toothy grin on a white background. It has dark tendrils which extend to a red, flying wyvern, a large dire boar, and an elderly Asian man with big glasses in a blue shirt. It's controlling them somehow - perhaps for someone.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Ben has a chat with a corporate villain. It's Chapter Twelve of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 441, "Trying to Monetize It" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/3QrEcAb #readalong #bookclub

A man stands before a massive swirling vortex that is consumeing an entire city into an inky black void. It's horrific, eldritch chaos, and naturally someone is going to try to profit from it.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

A meeting with a kindly old widower reveals something rotten. It's Chapter Eleven of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 440, "Keeping Her Memory Alive" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/47X2lES #readalong #bookclub

A young woman of Asian ethnicity with reddish hair wearing a mustard yellow summer dress with white polka-dots sits alone in a summer garden.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Ben discovers a shocking new superpower. It's Chapter Ten of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 439, "Extreme Gardening" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4m6CUGC #readalong #bookclub

A man in army fatigues stands in a jungle, and shoots a flamethrower at some plants. The stream of orange flame is burning away some tall grass. Truly, it is an extreme form of gardening.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

A big angry snake and his fortune telling daughter. It's Chapter Nine of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 438, "Taken to the Big Snake" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/3NIVUyi #readalong #bookclub

A screenshot from the animated film "Aladdin." Jafar, in the form of a big angry black and red cobra, holds Aladdin in his coiled clutches. They say you should never turn into a giant snake, because it never helps.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

A covert mission to the pasar bayang is blown wide open by an innocent visit to a fortune teller. It's Chapter Eight of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 437, "Anti-Government" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4uI6dTJ #readalong #bookclub

A tarot spread with Rider-Waite cards on a fancy floral rug. The cards showing include the Knight of Cups, the Knight of Swords, the Ace of Cups, the Five of Swords, the Nine of Pentacles, the Seven of Cups, the World, and the Emperor. The obvious reading: someone's secret mission just got totally exposed.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

The main character and his boyfriend in our feature novel, "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social are named Ben and Adam. Every time we talk about them, Scott automatically thinks of the hosts of @greatesttrek.com, Ben and Adam, and is amused. (@benjaminahr.mobi and @cutfortime.bsky.social.)

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

The totally normal activity of visiting the local grocery store to enact an occult ritual. It's Chapter Seven of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 436, "Cut To: Grocery Store. INT." is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4sJkq15 #readalong #bookclub

The interior of a NTUC store in Singapore, looking toward the pharmacy, with purple balloons and a few shoppers in the aisle.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The team meets to come up with project objectives and a productive work flow. It's Chapter Six of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 435, "Fishbowl Conference Room" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4rYwJqi #readalong #bookclub

A long, wooden conference table surrounded by ten rolling office chairs, encased in a glass room. A whiteboard hangs on the far wall. Anyone walking by can easily see what's going on in the meeting room. True, fishbowl style office design.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Adam and Ben reconnect over shared monster fighting. It's Chapter Five of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 434, "Random Encounter Table" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4scRRbQ #readalong #bookclub

A page with a D&D-style random encounter table sits on a wooden table, with a green d12 showing a "9" sitting on top of it. The table is labeled for Parking Lot encounters, and has 12 items on the list. The rolled 9 indicates a wyvern will be encountered in the parking lot. Other options include an abandoned shopping cart full of treasure, teenagers doing skateboard tricks, gremlins sabotaging cars, a seductive penanggalan, and 1d6 hobgoblin fighters.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

This is a good read and well worth picking up!

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

An afterhours meet up with his romantic interest turns into just more work for Ben. It's Chapter Four of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 433, "The Leslie Knope" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4asKGq9 #readalong #bookclub

Leslie Knope from "Parks and Recreation" sits in her office looking competent and upbeat. She is a blonde woman in a sharp grey suit and a red shirt, her hands folded in front of her on the desk. An American and Pawnee town flag are on either side of her, and the seal of Indiana hangs on the wall behind her.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

When we’re not reading or parenting, sometimes we find the time to play games together!

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Reposted by The Read-Along

Arkady Martine | Dr. AnnaLinden Weller @byzantienne.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Three days, slightly under $3k to go in order to fund WHAT ELEGANT STARS, a space opera & fashion anthology that I am deeply, deeply excited to write for ... if it gets funded. www.kickstarter.com/projects/dav...

kickstarter.com

What Elegant Stars

Queer Tales of Impossible Style, a fashionable space opera anthology.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Ben holds a casual meeting, takes a personal call, and has some mystical "me time." It's Chapter Three of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 432, "Damp" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/46EGFwp #readalong #bookclub

A small human figure plunges into a vast watery abyss. It could be bottomless, as it just fades into darkness.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Ben and his new internet get swept up in an occult mystery. It's Chapter Two of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 431, "'By the Book' Kind of Guy" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/46pWOpn #readalong #bookclub

A well-dressed man wearing brown shoes, khaki chinos, a blue buttoned up shirt, and a navy blazer. He stands outside on a sunny day. He looks good, but if he only owned several versions of this same outfit, he's probably be described as "boring."

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

There's only so much an occult beaurocrat can do in one day. It's Chapter One of "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Episode 430, "Delta Greening" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4qQj0RR #readalong #bookclub

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Just launching a little Discord channel for the podcast, no big deal. Link in our profile!

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

We're very excited to announce our podcast's eighteenth featured novel, "City of Others" by @jaredpoon.bsky.social! Join us on a weekly, chapter-by-chapter analysis and discussion of this urban fantasy, available wherever fine books can be purchased!

The book "City of Others" by Jared Poon on a green background. The cover features a city beset by tentacles, waves, and cats.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Character arcs, themes, and Anita's favourite segment "Make That Movie!" It's our final analysis of "Dreadful" by @caitlinrozakis.bsky.social! Episode 429, "That Guy's Dead Now" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/3NMYfaZ #readalong #bookclub

Hands holding a fancy looking urn, with a wisp of dust flying out of it and disappearing into the air on a white background.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Our characters earn a fresh start - the ones who aren't dead, at least! It's Chapter 19 of "Dreadful" by @caitlinrozakis.bsky.social! Episode 428, "Dark Wizard Cleaner" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/49H2Hzp #readalong #bookclub

An arm in a green rubber glove holds a bottle of cleaner with arcane runes for a label, in front of a puddle of tar-like black sludge on a stone floor. Hopefully it gets that mess out!

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

The most heroic of bungling causes everything to go badly for everyone. It's Chapter 18 of "Dreadful" by @caitlinrozakis.bsky.social! Episode 427, "He Walked the Chicken Walk" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4jDPj3M #readalong #bookclub

A very fancy looking rooster struts in a farmyard. Truly, he is the cockiest of cocks.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

A fake ritual descends into madness, while the real one turns into a tense standoff. It's Chapter 17 of "Dreadful" by @caitlinrozakis.bsky.social! Episode 426, "The Wonderful Chaos" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/3Li99ob #readalong #bookclub

A scene from Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." Masked and robed figures milling about waiting for an occult ritual to begin.

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The Read-Along @thereadalong.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

People coming through doors and cases of mistaken identity. It's Chapter 16 of "Dreadful" by @caitlinrozakis.bsky.social! Episode 425, "It Would Be a Farce" is now available wherever podcasts can be found! bit.ly/4pg30qC #readalong #bookclub

A cast preforming the classic backstage farce "Noises Off," on the brightly lit set, in a darkened theatre.

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