To obtain brightness and good chromatic aberrations by specifically arranging partly joined plural lenses and forming the lens for reading so as to satisfy specific conditions.

The positive meniscus lens L1, the positive lens L2, the negative lens L3, the negative meniscus lens L4 and the positive lens L5 are arranged successively from an object side. The lenses L2 and L3 are joined. The lens for reading is so constituted as to satisfy the equations (1) to (5): (1) 1.78≤N1, (2) 47.0<ν3+ν4<57.0, (3) 1.4<f123/f<2.0, (4) 22<ν2-ν3, (5) 1.37<f2/f3<1.64, where Ni denotes the refractive index of the glass material of the i-th lens, νi denotes the Abbe number of the glass material of the i-th lens, f123 denotes the combined focal length of the first to third lenses L1 to L3 existing on the front side of a diaphragm i, f denotes the focal length of the entire system, fi denotes the focal length of the i-th lens, R41 denotes the radius of curvature of the face on the object side of the fourth lens L4 and R42 denotes the radius of curvature of the face on the image side of the fourth lens L4.