diff --git a/khmer/_khmer.cc b/khmer/_khmer.cc
index f3f9d2a0e2..33c3a02cb0 100644
--- a/khmer/_khmer.cc
+++ b/khmer/_khmer.cc
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ khmer_Read_init(khmer_Read_Object *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
         const_cast<char *>("quality"), const_cast<char *>("annotations"), NULL
     };
 
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "|zzzz", kwlist,
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "ss|zz", kwlist,
                                      &name, &sequence, &quality, &annotations)) {
         return 0;
     }
diff --git a/tests/test_read_parsers.py b/tests/test_read_parsers.py
index aa49a9c8b9..dbe3480c17 100644
--- a/tests/test_read_parsers.py
+++ b/tests/test_read_parsers.py
@@ -47,11 +47,16 @@
 
 def test_read_type_basic():
     # test that basic properties of khmer.Read behave like screed.Record
-    r = Read()
-    s = Record()
-    for attr in ('sequence', 'name', 'quality', 'annotations'):
-        assert not hasattr(r, attr), attr
-        assert not hasattr(s, attr), attr
+    name = "895:1:1:1246:14654 1:N:0:NNNNN"
+    sequence = "ACGT"
+    r = Read(name, sequence)
+    s = Record(dict(name=name, sequence=sequence))
+
+    for x in (r, s):
+        assert x.name == name
+        assert x.sequence == sequence
+        assert not hasattr(x, 'quality'), x
+        assert not hasattr(x, 'annotations'), x
 
 
 def test_read_type_attributes():