From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)

ASP Read Method

The Read method reads a specified number of characters from a TextStream file and returns the result as a string.

Syntax

TextStreamObject.Read(numchar)

Parameter	Description
numchar	Required. The number of characters to read from the file

Example

<%
dim fs,f,t,x
set fs=Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set f=fs.CreateTextFile("c:\test.txt")
f.write("Hello World!")
f.close

set t=fs.OpenTextFile("c:\test.txt",1,false)
x=t.Read(5)
t.close
Response.Write("The first five characters are: " & x)
%>

Output:

The first five characters are: Hello

Complete TextStream Object Reference