Read Lock Question

[Spiderman]

1. Is it possible to release a read-lock from a table before a thread
   is done reading from it?

2. Given the above is true, is there anyway to release a read-lock
   from a table so that you can insert rows into a table?

Motivation:

 I have a log table which receives many insert commands in a short
period of time all day.  These come from people running a cgi on our
website. Currently if I select from the log table which get's rather
large, a read-lock is placed on the table suspending all inserts until 
the select is done running.  This translates into the cgi script
hanging, while it waits for the insert to return.

If releasing a read-lock isn't feasible, what options do I have for a
logtable which insert's frequently and want to select from every so
often.

ps.  I read all the documentation I could before I asking, so I may
have missed the answer in which case I apologize.  I'm also rather new 
to databases.  Now I'm done making excuses for myself.

-billy