diff --git a/perseuspy/__init__.py b/perseuspy/__init__.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/perseuspy/__init__.py
+++ b/perseuspy/__init__.py
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ def read_perseus(path_or_file, type_map = perseus_to_dtype, **kwargs):
     """

     annotations = read_annotations(path_or_file, separator, type_map)

     column_index = create_column_index(annotations)

+    if 'usecols' in kwargs:

+	    column_index = column_index[kwargs['usecols']]

     if 'Type' in annotations:

         dtype = {name : t for name, t in zip(annotations['Column Name'], annotations['Type'])}

         if 'dtype' in kwargs:
handle 'usecols' kwarg in read.perseus