Chris is married to Louise and together they have two children, a son named Caleb Mattias Wells Read, who was born on 3 May 2009, and a daughter named Callista Lily Read, who was born on 18 January 2011. On 4 November 2007 Read ran the New York City Marathon to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK in honour of his first cricket coach, Trevor Ward, who died of the disease. Read finished 4358th out of over 90,000 runners, placing him in the top 5%.

Read played for Devon in a NatWest Trophy match at the age of 16, and in 1997 made a single AXA Life League appearance for Gloucestershire, claiming an NBC Denis Compton Award that year. After an England A tour to Kenya and Sri Lanka in the winter - making his first-class debut in Nairobi - Read was picked up by Nottinghamshire for the 1998 season. By June he had established himself in the side and he claimed 42 dismissals that summer as well as making 401 runs.

County years

Several years in the international wilderness followed, Read being overlooked in favour of first Paul Nixon and then James Foster as keeper-in-waiting in preparation for the retirement of Alec Stewart. Left to concentrate on his county cricket career, Read claimed 68 dismissals in 2002 and worked at his batting, that year averaging nearly 35 with another hundred coming against Northamptonshire. He made a one-day century against the same opponents early in 2003 and with Stewart's retirement from international one-day cricket, he was recalled by England that year, playing in all ten ODIs.

Return to county cricket

In the 2004 English season, Jones was preferred for the series against New Zealand and West Indies in both Tests and One-Day Internationals, having made a century in the second Test of the New Zealand series. Read returned to Nottinghamshire and had by far his best season with the bat: he scored 807 first-class runs including two centuries, and averaged over 50. The selectors stuck with Jones, however, and by the summer of 2005 Read was not even second-choice keeper for England in ODIs, Matt Prior of Sussex being preferred for the role. Read was again overlooked in the squad for the winter tour of Pakistan, instead being selected for the second-tier ECB National Academy squad. As first choice wicket-keeper in the Academy squad, Read got several opportunities to play, and had a successful tour, scoring 254 runs at an average of 66.25 in the West Indies before he had to prematurely return home to attend to a family emergency.

Read continued to be on the fringes of England squads, and was selected for the England 'A' team against the touring Pakistan side in 2006, off the back of a strong start to the county season which had seen him average 50 in both formats of the game. He took advantage of his selection, scoring an unbeaten 150 in the tour match. Soon after, Geraint Jones, who had remained first choice for England despite a slump in batting form, broke a finger in the second Test match against Pakistan in 2006; the next day Read scored a rapid 72 against Northamptonshire in a Natwest Pro 40 League game.

In September 2007, Read took over as the captain of Nottinghamshire. The team were promoted in the championship that summer and Read averaged 54.17 with the bat. In 2009 Read had an excellent season with Nottinghamshire, scoring 1,203 runs at an average of 75.18 including 4 centuries in first-class cricket. His form with the bat has largely continued since.

He averaged 45.80 in 2010, 37.37 in 2011, 48.75 in 2012, and, after a lean year in 2013, has had a profitable last two seasons. In 2014 he averaged 43.85 and, as of September 2015, he is topping Notts' cur