1- like = enjoy It is followed by the gerund (verb+ing) to mean 'enjoy': I like reading. (or I liked reading when I was a child.) The infinitive can also be used here and is particularly common in American English: I like to read books. 2- However, 'like' can also mean 'think wise or right', and is then always followed by the infinitive: She likes to go to the dentist twice a year. (She thinks this wise) She likes going to the dentist. (She enjoys her visits) Similarly She doesn't like to go = She doesn't think it right to go. She doesn't like going = She doesn't enjoy going.

The academic English for a simple sentence construction is subject, verb, object. So, "I" is the subject, "like" is the verb, and " reading" is the object. If you are doing the home work for your school, then " I like to read " is an incorrect answer. You should choose I like reading. However, "to read" is an act, you like to read that means you like to do something, it is reading. If you are asking me for opinion, I agree with you that you can say I like to read instead of I like reading. Precisely, these two sentences may not have the same meaning. For example: Q: Are you working hard? A: I am hardly working. Hardly is an adverb which modify working, grammatically, it is correct. But its meaning has been changed, it is not what the question asked.

Hello Linear, They are both using the main verb "to like" in the present simple tense indicating a habit . You know that the present simple tense refers both to present actions as well as repeated habits or actions done on a regular basis. The only difference in both sentences is the usage of a second verb in the first one and a verbal noun in the second one, but they give the same meaning as previously mentioned ;)

Yes; they have the same meaning. You can use either.

In the 2nd sentence, "reading" is a gerund, which is when the verb acts like a noun. So "reading" is the object of the sentence.