The Royals' Madejski Stadium form has provided the bedrock of their promotion campaign so far this season, but a first home defeat of the season at the hands of struggling Southampton last time out seemed to have caused something of a wobble for Steve Coppell's side.
And if Reading were suffering a hangover from that game, then Coventry City cashed in as Danny Fox gave the Sky Blues a shock lead.
The January signing from Walsall had scored his first goal of the season in similar fashion against Swansea a week earlier and repeated the trick as his sweetly-struck left-foot effort bent out of Marcus Hahnemann's reach.
Reading responded though and were level on 32 minutes as Noel Hunt's header from a Liam Rosenior cross took a big deflection off Fox and looped beyond the helpless Kieren Westwood.
Westwood's error then allowed Kalifa Cisse to set Stephen Hunt up in front of goal, but the midfielder dragged his shot wide with only the keeper to beat.
It was Cisse who did give the Royals the advantage on 37 minutes, ending a fine team move with a thumping sidefoot finish from Jimmy Kebe's cutback.
And Noel Hunt completed the comeback with his second of the night - and 10th of the season - again with the help of a defensive contribution.
This time it was Marcus Hall who allowed Stephen Hunt's low cross to get tangled beneath his feet, to give the younger of the Hunt brothers the simplest of chances.
Victory moved the Royals to within four points of Birmingham in the second automatic promotion place and came as a relief to Royals boss Steve Coppell.
"Looking back at that Southampton game, I might have done things differently, but the one thing I can never fault my players for is their application," he said.
"When they have gone behind before, there has been a tendency to panic, but tonight they just kept on doing what we had set out to do and some of the combination play was terrific."