The Order of Reading the Torah and its Blessings. Containing 11 Se'ifim.
In a place where the custom is that the one who goes up [to get an aliyah] himself reads out loud - if he did not first review the Parsha two or three times to himself, he should not go up. Rem"a: and in a place where the chazan reads [the Torah], he needs to review first. [Beit Yosef]
One who does not know how to read should be discouraged from going up to the Torah. If he is needed, being a Cohen or Levi, and there are no others: if, when the Shaliach Tzibbur is reading for him word for word, he is able to say it [along with him] and read it from the writing, then he may go up to the Torah. Otherwise, he should not.
Even the head of the community or the Chazan should not read until he's told to read. And the custom is that the prayer leader may, if he wants to, make the blessing and read without taking permission; because it's as if when he was appointed prayer leader, he was given permission for this. Rem"a: And in these countries, this is not the custom; and a Chazan should only go up [to the Torah] if the assistant calls him up. However, he is not called up by his name like all the other "olim" (ie. those who get called up to the Torah) who are called by their name, "Ploni Ben Ploni" (So and so, the son of so and so). Someone whose father is a transgressor through idol worship, should be called by his father's father's name (ie. the grandfather), but not with his name alone, in order to not shame him in public [Trumat Hadeshen - siman 21 and 68]. And this is only when this person has never been called up to the Torah with his father's name; but if he is an adult and accustomed in that city to be called up by his father's name, and then his father became an apostate, he should be called up to the Torah by his father's name as they are accustomed to, in order to not to embarrass him in public. And so too, if there is as a chance of hostility by the apostate [Mahara"m Paduah - siman 87]. [Regarding] an Assufi (ie. someone who was collected from the marketplace and doesn’t know the identity of his parents) and a Shtuki (ie. someone who knows the identity of his mother but does not know the identity of his father): we call him by his mother's father's name, and if he doesn't know even that, then we call him up with the name "Avraham", just like a convert. [His (ie. the Rem"a's) own opinion]. A blind person is forbidden to read, for it is forbidden to read even one letter by heart. [The Mahari"l wrote that nowadays, we may call up a blind person just like we call up an illiterate person.]
All who read [should] bless before it and after it. He should open the Torah scroll before he makes the blessing and see the verse he needs to start with and then recite the blessing; and after it was read, he rolls it up and recites the [second] blessing. Rem"a: And at the time that one recites the first blessing, he should turn his head to the side so that it does not appear that they are reading the blessing from the Torah [Kol Bo]. And it seems to me that he should turn his face to the left.
The custom is to cover the Torah with a scarf between person to person (aliyah to aliyah). (In these countries, the custom is to roll up the Torah between person to person, and this is the main [opinion].)
One should say "Barchu" and the blessings out loud; and those who say it in a whisper are making a mistake. Some say [in that case] that one must repeat it out loud. Rem"a: so that the people hear it and answer “ברוך ה' המבורך לעולם ועד” ("Blessed is the Lord, who is blessed for ever and ever.") [Tur]. And if the congregation did not hear the one reciting the blessing (ie. Barchu), even though they heard the chazzan answering, they do not answer to him (ie. to the one who whispered), rather they answer “amen” to the words of the chazzan (ie. his response to the one reciting Barchu) [Beit Yosef in the name of RI, Orchot Chaim, and Kol Bo].
After the people answer to “ברכו את ה' המבורך” ("Bless the Lord, the blessed One"), the one making the blessing repeats and says “ברוך ה' המבורך לעולם ועד” ("Blessed is the Lord, who is blessed for ever and ever.") in order to include the one making the blessing among those who bless [Hashem].
Even if one recited his personal Torah blessing (ie. as part of the morning blessings), and right afterwards they called him to read from the Torah, he must repeat and bless "...who has chosen us..." when he reads from the Torah; because it was for the honor of the Torah that [the blessing] was established when people read [from the Torah] in public.
If a person was called to the Torah before saying his personal Torah-blessing, he is then exempt from having to recite the blessing “Asher bachar banu” ("Who has chosen us"), since it is no worse than being exempted by the blessing Ahava Rabba [which is said before the Shema].
[In] the blessing [that is made] after [reading from the Torah], [the words] “asher natan lanu Torat emet” (“Who gave us the true Torah”) refers to the "Torah She'bichtav" (Written Torah), and [the words] “ve’chayey olam nata betochenu” (“and who planted eternal life within us”) refers to the "Torah Shebe’al Peh" (Oral Torah).
The one reading the Torah must hold the Sefer Torah at the time he makes the blessing. Rem"a: And they base this tradition on the verse from Joshua: "Do not let this Book of Teaching cease from your lips...Be strong and resolute"(Josh. 1:8-9). And from this we have the tradition to say to the person who finishes reading from the Torah, each time: "Hazak" ("Be strong"). (Beit Yosef in the name of Orach Chaim)