An extract from Emma (Volume 1 Chapter 4)

"Mr. Martin, I suppose, is not a man of information beyond the line of his own business. He does not read?"

"Oh yes!—that is, no—I do not know—but I believe he has read a good deal—but not what you would think any thing of. He reads the Agricultural Reports and some other books, that lay in one of the window seats—but he reads all them to himself..."