Reading files is essential for configuration loading, data processing, and content serving in Node.js applications and server-side development. As the creator of CoreUI, a widely used open-source UI library, I’ve implemented file reading in numerous Node.js build tools, documentation generators, and template processors for CoreUI projects. From my expertise, the most versatile approach is to use the fs.readFile() method for asynchronous file operations. This method prevents blocking the event loop and provides better performance in web applications that handle multiple concurrent requests.