def read_file(path):
    """Read a list of text lines, as string, from the given file path
    
    Keyword Arguments:
    path -- the path to a text file, as string
    """
    
    try:
        with open(path, encoding='utf-8') as f:
            text_lines = f.read().splitlines()
    except FileNotFoundError:
        raise
    return text_lines