Reading must have retained great affection for Dulwich College where he had had his first post, for he donated 12 volumes of his music which he had collected, transcribed and arranged. These volumes, now in the archives in Dulwich, are an important source of English organ music. They also contain psalm settings, harpsichord music and verse anthems which he had arranged for unison voices. His transcriptions are accurate, and his attributions are reliable. However, he sometimes "improved" upon pieces as he copied them, adding octaves in the bass. He saw the sections of a voluntary as interchangeable, sometimes indicating after an introduction: "follow this with any fugue". The manuscripts often have detailed registration marks, with first movements played on diapasons and second voluntaries marked "Full Organ", followed by a fugue for full organ. Most of his compositions have a seriousness of purposefar from the frivolity suggested by the reaction of the congregation in Hackney.
