What is reading?

Reading is asking questions of printed text. And reading with comprehension becomes a matter of getting your questions answered.

 - Frank Smith in Reading Without Nonsense (1997)

Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interaction between thought and language. Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time. The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening.

- Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the Reading Specialist (1967)