I did not love the latter parts of Castillo's polemic How to Read Now, but the intro was powerful and compelling. I do think she has valid points about the importance of reading all literature with a filter of how it can be used to address inequality and make a positive difference in the world. However I had a hard time telling her audience. If she was preaching to the choir of like-minded educated elites, this is not new material. And she talked down in anger to that crowd. For the uninitiated, it comes across as off-putting anger. I may not have loved this, but I did find it thoughtful in parts, and occasionally persuasive and revealing. Three stars for me, but maybe I'm just not the right reader.

I attempted this book on multiple occasions and felt it was simply too smart for me. I couldn't keep up with the author and her thinking. For those who really like to contemplate books you'll love this heady piece of writing, but for me it was too much and I had to DNF.

Thank you, Viking, for an advanced copy of this book which I requested as a fan of Elaine Castillo’s America is not the Heart. Since publication, I have purchased a copy and am woefully behind in providing comments.
Exploring the reading life is imperative. If more people did it, the world would be a better place. Thank you for bringing this challenging and important book into the world to assist all of us in reading more intentionally and perhaps differently than we historically have.

Eye opening book! Much more than I expected interms of social justice and historical context. Really important read for everyone trying to make a positive difference in society today.

How To Read Now is a powerful and urgent thought-provoking compilation of essays that challenge you to read intentionally. They dare you to expand your circle of reading and to, specifically, discuss the ideas with a range of people with different viewpoints. This doesn't happen often enough and is the key to the future of our society.

A book that is long overdue and, yet, won't be read by those who most need to read it. Castillo's persuasive and well-made arguments should make us all, whatever our color or politics might be, question how and even why we read. If Castillo's tone often veers toward polemical, it is the need of the hour. In our times now, we're probably reading more than ever, whether that's books or social or news media, whether for information or pleasure. And the kind of mindless reading that this 24/7 treadmill engenders is doing us more harm than good. It's tiring to see respected book critics talking about the page-turning quality of a book as its most important attribute; readers doing count challenges to get through the most books each year; the publishing ecosystem then shutting out other books that deserve attention. What we need is for all of these people to read Castillo's book to slow down, think deeper, and peel back new layers in the world around them and in themselves.

This book was, in some parts, perfect and in other parts, a bit too long. I get it. Joan Didion is not a hero, but it felt like that essay overstayed its welcome.
Also, while I agree with most everything Ms. Castillo wrote, and I am so glad this book exists, I did find it a bit disconcerting that while race and gender were subjects, as they should be, class was never an issue. I appreciate that she has traveled the world and seen everything due to the fact that she is a gifted writer, but I suspect, the majority of her readers can’t afford to travel the world in quite the same way. It was a turn off just a bit.

Still, I have already recommended this book to people. I think, unfortunately, that the people who need to read this the most, will not read it. Hopefully, someone they know will read it and tell them how important it is.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group Viking for a copy of this new collection of very prescient essays.

The world is a mess. I don't think I am breaking any non- disclosure agreements, nor airing fake news. Socially, physically, emotionally, entertainment, politics, hopes, dreams, aspirations even death itself seems wrong, and even those who follow Facebook for their news, or Twitter for doom scrolling can see this. However what is occuring slowly to many people in this United States, has been known and thought about by people who have been marginalized, ignored or considered not equals for a long time. Best-selling author Elaine Castillo has been dwelling and frankly dealing with the hellscape that is this modern world, and has written a collection of essays How to Read Now: Essays, that demands that how we read the world we are living in is not the way the world is. Foundations have to be kicked over, old Gods left behind, and a new way of understanding and teaching about literature, movies, television, everything needs to be learned.

The book begins swinging right from the author's note, with a brief biography of the author, and a feeling that before Castillo was a person she was a reader. As the essays pass, this statement becomes clearer and more understandable. Also reading is not just about books, but about film, television and anything that reflects on the human experience. Which has been gatekept for much too long.

The book is extremely well written and argued with numerous points and lots of ohh I never thought that, or being a person like me, gee I never even thought that was a thing. I might not be the market for this book, but that did not stop me from enjoying it and thinking of who knew that would get it, and not think of it as an attack. The author has no problem with pointing out people, places and institutions that somehow control so much, as the continue to pass on into irrelevancy.

A book for a time madness, both in ideas and at ideas. A way of looking at things in a different way, to see how ingrained ideas are, and how they become what is the new normal. A book that a reader thinks about well after the last page is read, and one that certain essays will be shared with a "Seriously you got to read this". There will be quite a lot of learned discussions, NPR voiced interviews with people on both sides of any issue, the usual pearl clutching, and fake outrage and stepping out of your place attacks, maybe even a diner interview with Trump supporters that media seems to love. A book this strong, this truthful is going to annoy quite a lot of people.

We are not ready for this book, but we need to be. Elaine Castillo's book is a reckoning. How to Read Now asks us to reflect and reassess our approaches to reading, to talking about books, and more in light of white supremacy and oppression. These are hard questions but necessary ones. Everyone who reads, who teaches books, who talks about reading, etc. needs to get their hands on this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.