I love books about reading/books, whether fiction or non-fiction, but this wasn’t quite what I had hoped for from the title and blurb.

This collection of essays isn’t really about reading books or fiction, but is more about reading NOW – as in this time and place that we are living in, the real life context.

There are essays about race, colonialism, J.K. Rowling, Handke and various intersectionalities of identity and culture, and it is all very worthy, very ‘woke’, very well-argued. The prose is dense with scholarly analysis of modern issues in representation, diversity and inclusion.

In other words, this is not light reading.

These essays need to be read more than once, studied. You need to take notes as you read and grapple with the contents rather than simply devouring it. Which, funnily enough, is one of the main things Castillo is advocating throughout – reading with serious scholarly attention rather than for simply for entertainment. So form and function neatly unite in that respect!

Come to this book with notepad, pen and highlighters, ready to engage intellectually and morally with the many current issues explored. Expect to read this book critically, not casually or compulsively.

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

All English students (and indeed, all people) should read this clever, funny, irreverent book that completely rips apart literature and what stories can mean to us. Riveting and incredibly useful.

An interesting exploration of the way we read, analyse, critique, and, engage with the world around us. It is an important road map for anybody trying to navigate today's complex world.

I have yet to read Elaine Castillo’s fiction but How to Read was a fascinating look at literature and how important it is to keep our reading diverse. I am very excited to read more from her

Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An engaging and thoughtful engagement with media and literature today. Castillo seeks to provide frameworks for how we engage with media in our world today, or rather, how we 'read' the media around us. The definition of 'reading' in this book felt a little broad for me, and my main criticism of this book is that the title doesn't feel entirely fitting for the content, which encompasses TV and film, as well as other uses of language in our culture, just as much as it talks about literature itself. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the content, which is broadly excellent and not really my place to lean into, but I did particularly enjoy Castillo's criticism of Didion as THE Californian writer, as well as her detailed look into the Watchmen TV show.

I think this book would be an excellent inclusion for reading lists on contemporary American fiction, as well as being an invaluable read for those of us directly implicated in the business of literary criticism and curation (academics, librarians etc.). It really made me reflect on my attitude towards 'diversity' in literature and the current discussions about reading as empathy building.

I did feel that the longer pieces, in particular, had a bit of a tendency to meander, as if Castillo couldn't quite decide whether to keep the tone informal or academic - inclusions of references to people's zodiac signs, in particular, felt a little jarring. These didn't generally intrude on the actual meat of the book, however.

Overall, a great addition to anyone's shelves and an invaluable read for literary/media professionals. I am definitely going to seek out Castillo's other writing.

An interesting book written in a slightly odd format, definitely intended for the American audience which put me on the back foot slightly. I would love to read a collection of essays from the British point of view as I believe that would be more accessible to the British reader. Nevertheless some authors are classic to the western world and this is where interesting.

How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo is a collection of essays about the ways in which stories are told and understood.

This was a good effort. A personal perspective on decentring whiteness, which does come across as being America-centric, but is nonetheless thought-provoking enough to merit attention.

Very readable, too.

A series of essays (no doubt originally commissioned by different publications) that take aim at many of the inherited truths and assumptions made by writers, and which we unwittingly endorse as readers. Of Filipinx heritage, Castillo’s analyses of writers such as Joan Didon. Peter Handke and JK Rowling exposes white, colonialist and cisgendered privilege that assumes all readers share the views they regard as evident truths: their ‘expected readers’. Her work is a guide to what critical reading might mean now, and in particular the ‘unexpected reader’.The reader who is not imagined by the writer, and therefore excluded by them, is exactly that: a failure of imagination. As well as more recent work she reaches back as far as the Odyssey - taking Odysseus down while reclaiming Polyphemus from his received role as a laughably stupid monster.

Threaded through are autobiographical reflections on how reading has shaped her life: from her father pushing Plato, to how reading Henry James caused her to question her whole university course.

Though you’ll perhaps immediately go to the polemical swipes, she finds time to explain why the films of Wong Kar-Wai mean so much to her, why the X-Men and the TV series Watchmen offer so much hope, and how ultimately we might re-engineer a more diverse and inclusive reading culture. You’ll be very well read to have covered everything Castillo does, but she’s an engaging and insightful critic. You won’t agree with everything she says, but you’ll enjoy the debate and learn much from it. Me - I’m working through Wong Kar-Wai’s canon.

I found this novel extremely difficult to get into as the writing was a bit arrogant to begin with and very annoying.

The writing style was a bit annoying as it isn’t very proper. I often find this with American style pieces.

It also didn’t make complete sense in this way. It was constantly full of the authors notes instead of reading as a novel would normally read or even when a novel discusses topics as this just read differently. I wouldn’t say it was extremely well written the entire time as it wasn’t consistent in that sense. I wasn’t finding myself too excited to reach for this.

I really tried to get in to this book but realised I am not the intended audience. I totally got the references to how things were framed in literature but as I am British the references to American literature and what is perceived as classical books are not in my sphere of reading. It has made me question the framing of characters of colour and sexuality in my reading choices. Therefore it has been successful in that respect and I will look out for further reading around my choices

How To Read Now is an interesting collection of essays about reading books, reading films, reading art and reading the world in a way that makes us better humans. Very thought provoking, although I got a little bogged down when Castillo was discussing films and books in depth which I didn’t know. The concept of “the unexpected reader” will stay with me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I planned out my reading for the next few months and then took a casual scroll through Netgalley. I definitely couldn't resist, as a reader, a book that promises to discuss becoming a better reader. But yeah, when I picked this up, I had no idea it would randomly become a contender for my favourite book of the year.

Castillo is so witty, scathing, and absolutely unflinching. I was so wrapped up in her writing that I sat in the sun for too long and made myself ill with heat exhaustion. Absolutely no regrets though.

How To Read Now takes a deep dive into the problems with how we read (not just books, but the world in general), and explores questions about how we might read better. Castillo discusses so many interesting topics, such as the lazy idea that we read to build empathy, and the idea that "representation" is enough when it comes to marginalised people in media. Every line in this book is perfect. In just one essay she eloquently explains why Joan Didion is not the place to go for writing about California, and offers Tommy Pico as an alternative, beautifully explaining why his poetry is 'peerful' and why this is important. Each essay, no matter the topic, is equally as strong.

If I had to use one word to summarise this book I would say that it is generous. Elaine Castillo not only gives us fantastic literary criticism but enfuses her writing with personal anecdotes about her own experiences and her family. She writes with so much passion, she is so humourous and very angry (I love the part where she says she has zero chill, because I very much relate).

I don't have a big list of books that I think everyone should read, but after reading this I would say it is essential reading, and I'll recommend it to as many people as possible. I will definitely be picking up Castillo's novel soon, and anything else that she writes in future.

Thank you for letting me read this book, it's definitely one I will be revisiting when I can get a finished copy.

How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.

Meticulously argued and as unapologetic as it is absorbing, How To Read Now touches articulately and affectingly on a miscellany of (always appurtenant) topics in this medley of mini-treatises. Albeit still mostly myopically, monopolizingly America-centric (and not without the sorts of simplifications you'd anticipate from a text of this sort), Elaine Castillo's tenacious assertions and multifaceted 'manifestos' make for such a matchless mix of backward-looking and up-to-the-minute takes on the many subjects it treats that it makes up for the admittedly misleading marketing I could barely bring myself to mind this time around.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for kindly passing on this ARC! 💫