"read" and "read"

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"read" and "read" (past tense of "read").

I think it's confusing that they're spelled the same. If someone writes:

"I read that book".

Is it "read" pronounced "reed", or "read" pronounced "red"?

I don't find it confusing. It just depends on the context. As for the sentence you put, I would need to see it used in a situation or else I don't know.

In your example, they would almost always mean "red". If they meant the other form, it kind of sounds like they are saying they do it often and multiple times, like "I eat spaghetti", which doesn't really make much sense for reading a single book. "I read those books", on the other hand, could go either way depending on context.

It's one of those idiosyncratic things about the English language that irritates me at times too.

Luckily, in my native tongue we have NOTHING like that But on the other hand, we have no tense continuous at all either - not that I'm complaining, I think that this tense is just a bonus addition, I don't necessarily need to know if my compatriot is doing something just now or if they habitually do this

There is also a village not far from me called Read.