Picked up books on tragic figure (6)
I believe the answer is:
learnt
'picked up' is the definition.
(pick up can mean to learn or discover)
'books on tragic figure' is the wordplay.
'books' becomes 'NT' (New Testament).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'tragic figure' becomes 'lear' (from Shakespeare's King Lear).
'nt' put after 'lear' is 'LEARNT'.
(Other definitions for learnt that I've seen before include "Acquired by instruction" , "Committed to memory" , "informed" , "Studied" , "Memorised" .)