A review by heynonnynonnie
How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo

3.0

Why I Picked This Book: Feeling like I needed some critique on books marketed almost solely as BIPOC. I didn't have words to explain the nuances of the dichotomy between feeling that representation matters and feeling like some books are only about a statistical representation rather than something reflective of a culture or an individual. I wanted an inkling of how to move the discussion further than the vague "read diversely". From the marketing and the few Goodreads reviews I skimmed, I understood this was kinda academic-lite with a larger focus on pop culture - maybe a little counter-culture. As a result, I expected some of these essays to read like a blog post of a grad student/recent post-grad. The book's saturation within book social media signaled that it would likely be fairly basic, but I was excited to read about it from an American-Filipino perspective. I wanted to see how someone else in the Filipino/SE Asian label grapples with the questions brought up in diverse publishing. 

Thoughts: I liked the first two essays, the last few pages of the penultimate essay, and the very last essay.  I think it was the first essay that discussed how writers of color are often served up to the market as an ethical consumption for white readers to practice empathy. I felt like the point of that essay was that the "diversity matters" chant doesn't address the systemic disparities regarding race and class.  Based on the first essay and the title, I was expecting a prescriptive approach, which isn't what the author is going for. The other essays lacked focus and often didn't seem to be building new ideas. Often, I got an "I'm not like other readers" vibe from the author, which exacerbated my issues with the middle essays.