Purpose is the part of the first step of the whole process (prepare). If you're vague about what you want from the book that's exactly what you'll get from the book by the time you get to activation. Vague. That's what people get from passively reading books and many of those books are the ones that get dumped within the first three chapters of traditional reading.
You prepare before every step of the system.
You're about to spend X amount of time out of your life reading a book. You're not going to get that time back back so doesn't it make sense to know what you are expecting to get from your time investment?
And stop calling it a "serious Mental Block". Do you really want to give yourself such a powerful affirmation? 
The only thing you're proving in your failed activation attempt is that you don't really have a purpose for the book. You're probably not that curious about it and you selected it because that happened to be on your book self and matched the criteria for size in the PhotoReading assignment for session 7B.
Find a book you are interested in and can see yourself using in the near future.
Alex
[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited May 14, 2006).]
