In this article, John Macalister draws attention to the fact that the term "extensive reading" can have multiple meanings. It has been used to include breadth of reading and time spent reading, as well as both amount of new reading and amount of text read. It is, therefore, perhaps unsurprising that teachers can hold differing views as to the nature of extensive reading and that it manifests itself in different ways in the classroom, if it is present at all. Given the confusion that can exist, Macalister attempts to add clarity to the guidelines of the ten principles proposed by Day and Bamford (2002). Extensive reading is not a difficult concept but suffers at times from being differently understood by teachers and researchers, leading to some confusion in the literature surrounding it, and at other times suffers from attempts to over-complicate it. In this paper Macalister has tried to de-mystify extensive reading, drawing on--and reducing in number--the principles proposed by Day and Bamford (2002) over a decade ago as these principles continue to provide a sound basis for understanding and implementing successful reading practices in the language classroom.