Over the last four decades, there has been a substantial body of research on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. However, very few studies have focused on stage-wise frequency (pre-, while- and post-reading) and conditional knowledge of reading strategies. The purpose of this paper is to report stage-wise frequency and conditional knowledge of reading strategies as employed by nine ninth-grade participants. The participants were asked to maintain Reflective Journals, which were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed that the most frequently used strategies are "previewing," "underlining unfamiliar words," "re-reading difficult sentences" and "recalling summary." Reading strategies were employed for a variety of purposes such as predicting the main idea, solving the problems faced in comprehending the text, memorizing useful information and learning English vocabulary. The stage of reading was found to be significantly influencing both frequency and purpose of reading strategies. The findings of this study have implications for learners, teachers and course book designers in teaching English as a Second Language.