Are the aspirations we have around reading accurately reflected in the reality of the world? Castillo tackles that with unapologetic verve and bite here - and this is a collection of essays I will return to.

Here are highlights of some of the essay topics touched, which are in no way comprehensive coverage of all the topics in here:
1. a take on the why behind decolonizing your reading or reading outside of authors writing to your demographic
2. Is non-political reading possible?
3. Does reading fiction actually impact empathy?
4. Who is travel writing written for?
5. A dare, or more an invitation, to do better (maybe just different?) in how and why you read

Castillo engages with long-held assumptions on reading, and her writing comes across as earnest and fiery. I am not in complete agreement with the entirety of this book, but I also need to think more on so much of this book - and it is written in a way that I feel free to be in disagreement with sections because it is an open discourse with demands but also questions.

There is also a deep analysis of how Castillo has read throughout her life - how she has encountered the many mediums of story, how she was expected to interact with those stories, and how that differed from how she actually did.

The 'unexpected reader' is a term she defines as someone an author would not have expected to interact with their material. The examples she provides wiggled free some relation to "Shakespeare in the Bush" for me, which I read long enough ago not to remember clearly, other than the fact that it does seem to me directly pertinent to the concept of the unexpected reader. It is a concept I will likely be unable to forget every time I pick up a book.

Some essays I found more absorbing than others, but all of them I found thought-provoking.
I now also wish to re-read Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark as Castillo cites it regularly throughout to great effect. If either reading with intention or delving into the whys and hows of reading are in your field of interest check this book out - you may love it or hate it, but it will have you sitting up and taking notes. It isn't a perfect book, but the depth of thought and the passion in it tick all the boxes for my area of interest so I loved engaging with .