Read somebody like a book British American Verb + object/complement
To analyze or understand easily what one is thinking or feeling
He kept fooling me because he thought that he can read me like a book, but he was wrong.
I guess you didn't study last night. Come on, I can read you like a book.
Be able to understand one's behaviour or character
To try to imagine how would you feel if you were in someone's else situation
Used to describe starting to understand or learn about something.
To understand how something is done
The verb "read" should be conjugated according to its tense.
There is no reliable resources to prove the origin of this idiom, however, it is used widely from the mid of 1800s.