[1] He belonged to the group of Elizabethan surgeons who set themselves to improve the position of English surgery.
[2] In 1588 Read published a composite work, based on a translation from a surgical text of Franciscus Arceus (Francisco Arceo, 1494–1575).
Prefixed to the translation is A Complaint of the Abuses of the Noble Art of Chirurgerie, written in verse by Read.
The work contained aspirations, that "the Barbers craft ought to be a distinct mistery from chirurgery", and "chirurgians ought to be seene in physicke", that in the British context were delayed until 1745, and 1868, respectively.
[2] Read married, on 24 June 1588, John Banester's daughter Cicily.