read as

read (someone or something) as (someone or something)

To form a particular interpretation or understanding of someone's or something's inherent nature. Because of my neutral accent, most people read me as being from the Midwest, when I actually grew up in the Bronx. A: "Didn't you think that scene was in bad taste?" B: "Huh, I read it as a satire, so I assumed that was the point." I read the story as an allegory of the dangers inherent in a plutocracy.
See also: read
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

read someone or something as something

to interpret someone or something as something. I read you as a quiet guy who wants to settle down and have kids. Mary read the problem as one that did not require a lot of understanding.
See also: read
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • read (someone or something) as (someone or something)
  • on present form
  • show (someone or something) up as (something)
  • show up
  • show up as
  • a track record
  • a nail in somebody's/something's coffin
  • a ragged colt may make a good horse
  • colt
  • ragged
References in classic literature
You can do as you please, but I shall keep my book on the table here and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good and help me through the day."
At 9 years old, Ethan exhibited unusually intense activity in this brain region, even when compared with older children who read as well as he did.
Much of Borges's work can be read as a prescient elegy for the book.
There should also be ample opportunities for those who like individual endeavors to read a book by themselves.
* pass the written protion of the driver's test, or read a street sign or a map