Reading from a buffer

[Greg Hill]

I've pretty well mastered the process of *writing to* a buffer using
*insert* and *format*, but I haven't been able to find any equally easy way
to read that same information back. I've hacked together a workaround using
*copy-to-register*, *get-register* and *read-from-string*, but surely there
must be a more straightforward approach than that. I've searched and
searched through all the documentation and have come up with nothing for
doing a simple formatted read from buffer. Any suggestions?