Elisp - Loading an expression as data from a file

Question

I am attempting to write a function which, given a file path, will load the contents of that file and append it to a list. The end goal is to have one file for each org-capture template, and to load them from a list of files or an org-table.

My problem is that the load and load-file functions only return t if the load is successful.

What function can I use to return the contents of a file as an expression?

for example, given the file test.el:

'("foo" "bar" "baz" "fnord")

How can I achieve the following:

(mysterious-function "~/test.el")

=> '("foo" "bar" "baz" "fnord")

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

(defun mysterious-function (filename)
  (setq filename (expand-file-name filename))
  (with-temp-buffer
    (insert-file-contents filename)
    (read (current-buffer))))