File -> register

[Suresh Govindachar]

Hello,

  What's the best way to get the contents 
  of a file into a register?  I tried the
  following (file is foo.bat), but it 
  doesn't get rid of the new buffer:

      :new|r foo.bat|1d|normal "ayG|q! 

  So why does the q! get lost, and is there 
  a better way?

  Thanks,

  --Suresh