@technomancy I do read code when I see something that seems like pure magic... Which happens a lot, actually.
Normally what I do is open the program/site/library and use the Chrome's debugger to set breakpoints and jump around code execution, while watching how variables mutates and trying to understand how specifics parts of the code work.
After some years of web dev, I've learnt the best tool to know fully is the debugger, and not the framework of the month.