Xinyu Tan’s Reviews > How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading > Status Update
Xinyu Tan
is on page 241 of 442
In fact, much of what anyone writes on any subject is autobiographical. There is a great deal of Plato in Republic, of Milton in Paradise Lost, of Goethe in Fast—though we may not be able to put our fingers on it exactly. If we are interested in humanity, we will tend, within reasonable limits, to read any book partly with an eye to discovering the character of its author.
— Sep 14, 2025 09:03AM
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Xinyu’s Previous Updates
Xinyu Tan
is on page 265 of 442
The ability to retain the child's view of the world, with at the same time a mature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremely rare—and a person who has these qualities is likely to be able to contribute something really important to our thinking.
— Sep 16, 2025 09:42PM
Xinyu Tan
is on page 212 of 442
A work of fine art is “fine” not because it is “refined” or “finished,” but because it is an end in itself. It does not move toward some result beyond itself. It is, as Emerson said of beauty, its own excuse for being.
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To read it well, all you have to do is experience it.
— Sep 07, 2025 01:21PM
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To read it well, all you have to do is experience it.
Xinyu Tan
is on page 139 of 442
Teachability is often confused with subservience. A person is wrongly thought to be teachable if he is passive and pliable. On the contrary, teachability is an extremely active virtue. No one is really teachable who does not freely exercise his power of independent judgement....The most teachable reader is, therefore, the most critical.
— Aug 23, 2025 09:14PM
