Reading happens for both the Now Playing window and the Filelisting. If this takes long make sure you're Now Playing isn't too large and that the Filelisting isn't set to a My Computer node as My Computer nodes load much slower than Library nodes.

'reading files' is loading the now playing list.

if you clear your now playing list, you will probably find MM will load faster.

solution is to not load your entire library into now playing, but instead use AUTO-DJ

I'm having the same problem too. It seems related to downloading podcasts which I stopped by setting downloads to zero. However, I still can't use MM. I tried selecting Optimize Database but it just hangs there (even if left overnight). I tried swapping out the database file and that allows MM to open but the database never updates. I've also installed the latest update (fixing 10 critical issues) and that hasn't fixed the problem either. This is a real pain and MM Support hasn't returned my e-mail.

Please excuse me if this topic has come up before. Every time I open MM the program begins reading files. It used to just open and I would have my collection. I've tried 'maintain library' but this has no effect. Any ideas on how I can get it stable again?

Thanks.