This paper proposes to analyze the occurrence of characters that are readers of popular classes in short stories of Machado de Assis. It will look at whom these readers are, how they read, what their sociocultural context is, and what are the motivations and implications of their readings. It is intended, therefore, to approach from a new perspective the recurrent representation of reading practices in Machado`s work. As well as presenting possible contributions to a better understanding of the literate environment in the Second Reign and the access to it by the popular classes. As a conclusion movement, a possible reading of the short stories and characters analyzed is presented based on Fischer`s proposition on the thesis of Fragoso`s “Four Powers” and the place of the malandro.