Just as a note on your original $read...
$read(info.txt, w, $1-)
Unless *'s are in $1-, you will have problems unless $1- is the entire line of text from the text file. Instead, you should have * $+ $1- $+ * in there, or else $+(*,$1-,*). Wildcard matches need wildcards, or it expects an exact match of the entire line.
