This study concerns a sociological analysis about reading habits of the students from two institutions, a confessional (catholic) and a public one, both considered elite schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Based on the answers of the survey applied in 2004 and according to the research “Production Process of Education Quality: School, family and culture” from SOCED (a research group in Education Sociology from PUC - Rio University), the content and volume of reading from different sources based on a cataloging of titles listed by the pupils was investigated. The study was continued by taking the research beyond the institutional homogeneities, institutional features and their effects on the educational processes. Considering the students reading habits, their relationship with the language and mastery of standard language as structures that comprise the cultural capital valued by schools, investigation was carried out, in a second stage, of the students relationship with reading through their perceptions and impressions, in addition to the teaching practices developed by teachers and other school staff in training students with high levels of engagement in reading. It appears from the analysis that students of these schools have developed a wide and diverse literacy habitus which includes national and foreign literature genres for different audiences. The study also proposes the existence of educational profiles that, in different manners, influence the readers formation, their maintenance and development.