If a person is reading a novel, then his ciliary muscles:
contract
When one is seeing things that are nearby, the ciliary muscles contract to decrease the focal length.
When a person is looking at objects closer to the eye, the ciliary muscles contract. This increases the curvature of the eye lens.
The eye lens then becomes thicker. Consequently, the focal length of the eye lens decreases.
This enables the person to see nearby objects clearly.