People often say they do not know what reading is for, or what finishing a book is supposed to do for them. I will let you in on a secret. Before you begin, work out some of the themes the book is trying to explore—and there will always be more than one. AI can do this part for you. Then, as you read, keep watching for how those themes reveal themselves. Once you finish, summarize and reflect on each one.
Take Liu Zhenyun’s Someone to Talk To. Before reading it, I asked AI to identify its themes. One of them was how difficult it is to find someone in this world you can truly talk to. As I read, I kept noticing which events in the story gave form to that idea. Then came the most important part: reflection, the work of making that knowledge my own.
To internalize an idea, we need to recognize similar stories in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. Then we can tell ourselves: this is simply how the world is. Finding someone you can truly talk to is hard. Once we understand that, we will not be so discouraged when we cannot find a confidant; when we do find one, we will cherish the relationship because we know how rare it is.
Anna Karenina contains even more themes: good and bad forms of love, the tricks fate plays, and the meaning of life. If we truly internalize them, we can learn to recognize good love and bad love, what is worth fighting for and what will inevitably fall short, why imperfection is the ordinary condition of life, and what gives life meaning: doing good.
The merely informed know but cannot act; the truly learned both know and act.
In the end, it still comes down to a person’s capacity for insight. Someone who has it does not need to be told. Someone who lacks it will not understand, no matter how carefully they are taught.
And who determines that capacity? We do? Our genes? Heaven? After taking the long way around, we have arrived back at fate.
Love your fate, then. Even if it gives you a wretched hand, you can still be happy.
Zhengyang Yao
Beijing, August 2, 2026