"Read" is one of those words which don't change between present and past when written, but you probably heard that the present form has a long vowel, yet the past form has a short vowel. In this case, you also have the infinitive: "to read" (long vowel).
"I read book" is broken English. This can't work at all. You either need "I read a book" (which is past tense, unless you mean it as a habit: "when I am bored, I read a book") or "I read books" (books in general, which tells me this is present tense).
This is not as difficult as it seems. ;)