Questions & Answers about Je lis le roman entier ce soir.
French uses the simple present a lot more than English to talk about the near future, especially when there is a clear time expression like ce soir.
This is similar to English using the present continuous for a scheduled plan (I’m reading it tonight).
Other possibilities:
Je vais lire le roman entier ce soir.
Very close to English I’m going to read the whole novel tonight. Slightly more explicit about intention.Je lirai le roman entier ce soir.
Simple future; more neutral or a bit more “stated as a fact / promise”.
All three can be correct; the original sentence uses the common French pattern: present tense + future time expression.
In practice, Je lis le roman entier ce soir will almost always be understood as a plan for later the same day, not as something already in progress.
To say you’re in the middle of reading it right now, you’d normally say:
The word ce soir (“this evening / tonight”) strongly pushes the meaning toward a future plan.