Based on a principle reading books in Imam's home was what all of the people had a habit of. His Eminence Imam used to read more than others. But Haj Ahmad has said that in that home there were never more than 200 volumes of books. And they were sources. Almost all books that in each day were put forward were found in Imam's room. And he used to read them fast or as it is said he used to look at the pages.
But Mrs. (Mrs. Hajieh Khadijeh Saghafi who was his Eminence Imam Khomeini's dear wife) used to read with more patience and maybe there was always this question before her how did Mr. read the books with such a speed. Later she said that she discovered Mr.'s fast reading. He knew that the content of many books is repetitious and there is no need to read all of the pages. For example, once an individual gave him a gift; that was a book of 40 Hadith and there were three volumes of them and they were voluminous. Mr. flipped all three volumes and took some notes. Seemingly Mrs. told Mr. what kind of reading is this? And Mr. said: tell the writer what kind of writing is this? Those Hadiths have been explained ten times by others and through removing and another composition and with a new numbering of chapters and setting them beside each other the book does not turn out to be a new one.
Mr. largely liked story books and novels. And if she had an opportunity she would read them. There were also the generous Quran and the supplication book and some main books such as Nahjolbalagheh, Saheefehe Sajadieh and… One of her preoccupations was that story book. She used to read it with interest and in an attractive way she used to summarize that for others. And sometimes when his Eminence Imam used to see that Mrs. is busy reading a book he used to wait until the reading of the book was finished and then he used to hear a summary of that from Mrs.
Among the books that she was interested in and she had read them and she used to give a compliment regarding them were the deer's husband written by Ali Mohammad Afghani, beggars written by Victor Hugo, war and peace whose author was Tolstoy, mother written by Maxim Gurki and generally most famous story books. She tried to read them. She had read some books written by Sadeghe Hedayat, Jalale Ale Ahmad and recently written by Dr. Shariati. And maybe she was more interested in Shariati's mystical aspects and that is why she referred to Hobut Kavir (descending in desert) and Hossein (PBUH) the heir of Man…
Source: the book the revolution's lady who was another Khadijeh, pp. 141-143.