Read the passage from "how should one read a book? ” the thirty-two chapters of a novel—if we consider how to read a novel first—are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building: but words are more impalpable than bricks; reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing. the author’s purpose in this passage is to criticize. entertain. inform. persuade.

The correct answer is to criticize. The author begins the paragraph by explaining a concept from the passage (specifically the purpose of the 32 chapters of a novel). They then deconstruct this concept by criticizing the faulty metaphor of using chapters to form a building (that is, a book). When the author says "words are more impalpable than bricks" and "reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing," it's clear that he's invalidating the prior notion put forth by the passage.