Reading is a town in southern England, located about 30 miles west of London. It is one of six districts of Berkshire, the 26th most populous county with over 800,000 residents. Reading has a population of over 140,000 people.

The economy of Reading is dominated by the technology sector. Major companies operating in the town are Symantec, Verizon Business, Microsoft, Oracle, Sage, Xansa (now Steria), Cisco, Symbol Technologies, Websense, SGI. Other notable companies in the town include financial giants ING Group and Prudential plc, the oil and gas company BG Group, and accounting firms Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and PWC.
Some of these companies are based in the Thames Valley Business Park, the main business district in the Reading area.

Reading has a strong retail industry, with shopping districts dispersed around the town and surrounding communities. The main shopping area of Reading is concentrated in Broad Street, which includes the two large shopping centres of The Oracle (3 floors and 90 stores) and Broad Street Mall.

The Reading railway station has an important location along the national rail network and is a major transfer hub, serving more than 14 million passengers a year. The Great Western Main Line is the main route in the station and connects to London. Other smaller railway station serving Reading with mostly local transport are Reading West, Tilehurst railway station and Earley railway station.

Local bus services are provided by various operators including First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, Thames Travel, Arriva, Reading Transport Ltd.

Although Reading is located along the Thames River, water travel is mostly restricted as only leisure activities by private boats are allowed.

Some cultural venues and organizations in Reading are the multi-purpose arts complex The Hexagon and the Reading Symphony Orchestra.

Local media operating in the town are the newspapers Reading Evening Post and Reading Chronicle, and radio stations BBC Radio Berkshire, Reading 107 FM and 2-Ten FM.

The most notable professional sports team in the town is Reading Football Club, who compete in the Football League Championship(second tier of English Football) and play at the 24,500 capacity Madejski Stadium.

Other sports teams in Reading are professional Rugby Union teams English Premiership and London Irish, and semi-professional teams Reading Abbey R.F.C., Redingensians R.F.C. and Reading R.F.C.

Some major annual events in Reading are The Reading Half Marathon, which attracts over 10,000 participants, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals, one of the largest music festivals in England.