BASH scripting

sup
i'm using "read" to get a directory path into an env variable.
shit works well when the path doesn't contain an escape command for whitespaces like here:
/home/durp/pics/test_folder/
this here makes problems:
/home/durp/pics/test\ folder/
"read" simply ignores the escape command, but i need it. how do i circumvent that?

shit works now, but now i have another problem:
the path with the escaped whitespaces is in my $var
if i do ls $var it fails
if i do ls /home/durp/pics/test folder/ it works, but there's actually no difference between the $var and /home/durp/pics/test folder/
so what the fuck is wrong now?