Reading

This article is about reading as an activity. For the name of places, see reading (disambiguation).

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Reading is the process of retrieving some form of stored information or ideas. These are usually some sort of representation of language, as symbols to be examined by sight, or by touch (for example Braille). Other types of reading may not be language-based, such as music notation or pictograms. By analogy, in computer science, reading is acquiring of data from some sort of computer storage.

Reading by humans is mostly done from paper, but other media are used, such as carved stone, chalk on blackboard: anything that can hold a mark. More recently these include computer displays, television and other displays in devices such as mobile phones.

The process of recording information to later be read is writing. In the case of computer and microfiche storage there is the separate step of displaying the written text. For humans reading is usually faster and easier than writing.

Reading is typically an individual activity, although on occasion a person will read out loud for the benefit of other listeners. Reading aloud for one's own use, for better concentration, is a form of intrapersonal communication.

Literacy is the ability to read and write; illiteracy is usually caused by not having had the opportunity to learn these. Apart from that, sufferers of dyslexia have difficulty reading and/or writing.

About acquiring reading skill, see Reading education.

Proofreading is a kind of reading for the purpose of detecting typographical[?] errors.