OpenGl and Images!!

Hi, I am trying to read in .BMP image in opengl and trying to assign it to the buffers. I know you cannot read or write with opengl is there anyways I can read the image and assign it to the buffers.
Thanks for you time and help

cheers
pran

http://nehe.gamedev.net/

Opengl Superbible by Richard Wright and Michael Sweet has the code.