This research starts from a widen meaning of «readable space» (De Certeau) and aims to describe the real conditions affecting reading activity in secondary school. The first chapter examines the secondary school programmes (I and II grade) from "Rifoma Gentile" (1923) to the latest Indicazioni Nazionali and Linee-Guida (2011-2012). This study aims to describe the role and importance of reading in Italian teaching, also in relation to literary and linguistic education. The notion of «interpretative community» (from Stanley Fish and Romano Luperini) and its suitability to describe the activity of a school class during common reading are discussed in the second chapter. This notion is then integrated with the one of «community of practice» (Etienne Wenger). The «circle of reading» (Aidan Chambers) is individuated as an useful and effective method to transform the classroom into a real «community of interpretative practice». Third chapter tries first to define what a schoolbook is. Then, it analyzes two types of schoolbooks used for reading activities, «libri di narrativa» and literary anthologies, aiming to describe what kind of readable space is offered by their paratextual apparatus. The possibilities given by new technologies (ebook) are also examinated. Fourth chapter suggest a widen approach to reading skills and reading literacy. Work ends with a possible list of reading skills and good reading practices.