Abstract Reading skills and strategies are claimed to be the most important requirement of the Iranian students studying English at pre-university level and wishing to continue their studies at universities. This study aimed at critically reviewing the content of Iranian pre-university English book and what happened in English classes regarding reading skills and strategies. To this end, the pre-university English book and what is done in English classes were analyzed descriptively and comparatively. 100 pre-university students and 50 teachers were asked to complete a 20-item Likert-scale questionnaire regarding the extent to which the different regarding skills and strategies were presented and practiced in English classes. The teachers, in addition, completed a 15-item reading checklist. The analysis of the data gained from the checklist and questionnaires indicated that the book was appropriate concerning its selection of texts and the course goals while the exercises and ‘reading skills’ parts needed careful revision. There were also significant differences between what teachers thought they asked the students to do and what was actually done in the classroom. In future editions, the authors are suggested to incorporate more reading skills and strategies into the book to be practical in English classes. Also, extensive reading is highly recommended to be paid more attention.
