It's no mystery!  Your electric meter can easily be read if you understand some basic rules.  Each of the five dials represent one digit of the present reading.   As you can see, the dials move both clockwise and counter clockwise.  When the hand of one of the dials is between numbers, always take the smaller number.  For example:

If you cannot tell if a hand is past a number or not, simply look at the dial to the right.  If it has passed zero, then the hand is pointing to the correct number.  If the dial to the right has not passed zero, then use the next smaller number.  Totally confused?  Let's try an example:

The third digit is a three because the digit to the right has not yet passed zero.  If the second dial from the right was between the zero and the one, then the third digit would have been a four.  Easy isn't it!  To practice, go outside to your home or business and record the readings for several days in a row.    By subtracting yesterday's reading from today's reading, you can get a feel for how much energy (kilowatt hours) you use each day.

Keep in mind that when the power company representative reads your meter, they do NOT set it back to zero.  Therefore the dials keep turning until the next time the meter is read.  By subtracting two consecutive readings, the amount of kilowatt hours is determined for the month. 
 

Most electric meters have a rotating disc under the set of dials. A black mark on the disc’s edge shows when the disc has rotated one full revolution. Meters often show a code for how much energy is delivered by the electric utility company for one rotation of the rotating disc. A typical code is Kh 7.2. This not-at-all-obvious code means that one full rotation of the disc corresponds to 7.2 watt hours of electric energy. It is emphasized that "Kh" does not literally stand for watt hours, kilohours, or anything else that we know of, but for some mysterious reason, this terminology is used on electric meters!