A study was conducted to determine whether there was any match between student perception of reading ease and the readability of three main line, first-year college composition texts (Daugherty; Kinneavy, McCleary, and Nakadate; Lauer, Montague, Lunsford, and Emig) as determined by five commonly used readability formulas. Two chapters (on exposition and persuasion) were chosen from the five texts, and readability scores for each chapter as well as the texts as a whole were obtained. Students (n=311) responded to a Likert scale in response to the statement "This text was easy to read." Mean student readability perceptions were compared with the readability of the books as determined by formulas. Results indicated a serious discrepancy between student perceptions of reading ease and formula predictions. One explanation for the discrepancy may lie in text features not picked up by the formulas. These text features include: use and placement of main idea statements, examples, and repetition of key information. (One table is included.) (MG)