import codecs
import csv


def read_csv(filename, encoding="utf-8"):
    """Read information from a CSV file and return a list.

    Parameters
    ----------
    filename : str
            Full path and name for the csv file.
    encoding : str, optional
            File encoding to be provided for csv. The default is ``utf-8``.

    Returns
    -------
    list

    """

    lines = []
    with codecs.open(filename, "rb", encoding) as csvfile:
        reader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=",")
        for row in reader:
            lines.append(row)
    return lines