edit: funny to see all that we all replied at the same time. Just to add to the conversation, "diagonal reading" is not just a Russian idiom, it also exists in French :)
In German it's "querlesen" (read s.th. transversely, read s.th. across).
I guess Russian and French people start top left and stop bottom right, while Germans start top center and end bottom center ... (at least that's what I do).
edit: funny to see all that we all replied at the same time. Just to add to the conversation, "diagonal reading" is not just a Russian idiom, it also exists in French :)