A direct, if at times self-justified, collection of essays that sets out to highlight the inherited truths and assumptions made by writers, directors and philosophers when they set out to tell a story. How to Read Now bravely exposes what Costello identifies as elitist, colonialist and cisgendered privilege in a range of classical and popular literature and film, including writing from Henry James, Joan Didion and J.K. Rowling.
 
Well written and passionately argued, I found this book both thought provoking and problematic, sitting somewhere between educated literary criticism and bitter rant. Costello’s writing is brash and occasionally arrogant, though does succeed at least to a degree in making you question your own reading choices and the motives behind publishing in general. If you can put up with the argumentative style, you will no doubt come away with a more critical eye and more honest understanding of your own inherited truths.