Reads are important in the sense: weak/tight, solid/agro, calling station. Or: min-raises solid hands, loves to bluff river, donk bets turn when 2 pair hits, etc.

I only use specific hands, or a tight range when I look at what beats me and how likely it is they hold those cards vs how vulnerable my hand is. Say "I have AQ and I'm only afraid of AK or a draw" so if he's tight I'll be more cautious. If he's a donk I ignore AK and play like I have the nuts. Sometimes I'm wrong, but more often I'm not.

I've only been successful up to 50NL so take that FWIW.

{EDIT: zook posted while I was writing. My first post was dissing hand reading which wasn't the intent. I just meant it's so hard to narrow bad players ranges that thinking "hmm, he has A8 so he'll call $2 but not $3" isn't worth the energy. Bad players ranges are so wide that any respectable hand I generally assume is good, then try to decide if stacking off or a moderately priced showdown is best, and adjust my play off of that

I do think in terms of "that's how he plays TP", or "this looks like he's scared" so maybe I am just doing my hand reading sideways}