Despite a large amount of research on reading, little attention has been paid toexperimental studies on the effects of purposeful reading. This study explored theeffects of reading purpose on reading comprehension and perceived difficulty. 71high school students participated in this study and were randomly assigned to threegroups ? graphic organizer (Purpose 1), key sentence (Purpose 2), and control. Thelearners’ reading comprehension was measured through pre-, post- and delayed tests. The participants’ perceived difficulty for the texts was also checked with a sevenpointLikert scale. The result demonstrates no immediate effect of establishingreading purpose, though immediate reading purpose effects might be found if alonger treatment period is set. The results also reveal the sustained effect of readingpurpose on reading comprehension. In perceived text difficulty, the Purpose 1 groupfound the reading passages the easiest among the three groups. This suggests thatlearners establishing a reading purpose can gain greater ease in reading than thosewithout a reading purpose.