wb = xlrd.open_workbook('YOUR_FILE.xls')
sh1 = wb.sheet_by_index(0)
sh2 = wb.sheet_by_name('colors')
print('content of', sh1.name)
for rownum in range(sh1.nrows):
    print(sh1.row_values(rownum))
print('row3 col 2:', sh1.cell(rowx=3, colx=2).value)
col = sh1.col_values(0)
print('"A" column content:')
for cell in col:
    print(cell)
print(sh1.col_values(1))
Python xlrd читается как строка