Question

which excerpt from \how should one read a book?\ best states the authors purpose?
most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices.
but if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other.
thus to go from one great novelist to another—from jane austen to hardy, from peacock to trollope, from scott to meredith—is to be wrenched and uprooted, to be thrown this way and then that.
but a glance at the heterogeneous company on the shelf will show you that writers are very seldom \great artists\; far more often a book makes no claim to be a work of art at all.

Explanation:

The author encourages readers to open their minds widely to gain unique insights from books. The second - option emphasizes this attitude of openness, which is key to the author's purpose of guiding how one should read a book. The other options discuss common reading biases, the experience of reading different novelists, and the nature of writers and books, but do not directly state the purpose of reading with an open - mind as clearly.

Answer:

But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other.