All right, happy 750 books! Happy three-quarters of the way through! Surely at this point momentum will carry us through to the end, right? We're practically done already! Admittedly, I may have set myself up for some pain soon since I think I've not done a good job of reading the really long ones, but for now let's celebrate!
And what better way to celebrate than by flip-flopping on an opinion! So, I've always been a bit deprecating about this project. It's easy to make fun of it, and it's not something I ever have recommended to others. But, I'm now going to reverse this. I am officially coming out in favor of doing this project and saying that yes, I think you, dear reader, should to it, too.
Why? you may very well ask. Here are just a few of the reasons:
You will have so much more context. Can you actually get much out of Austen without reading the authors she was, in some ways at least, responding to? Or Woolf and Joyce? Nabokov? I have a much better understanding of the evolution of the novel, and how individual works fit into this context even as they are part of creating it.
You will read things you wouldn't have otherwise. I still feel a good deal of frustration with how white heterosexual Western middle/upper class male the list skews, but it will still broaden your horizons (well also making you want to broaden them even more).
You will experience complex, difficult novels that aren't rewarding till you've made a lot of headway. Without the list forcing me to work through some difficult books, I likely would have abandoned them. This approach to only reading what quickly captivates rewards flashy books (as well as, of course, many legitimately very good books), but punishes books that are less linear or that are trying something more intricate or puzzle like. Without the list project, I wouldn't have read those kinds of novels, and I adore them now.
Related to that: you will appreciate new things about novels. I used to read for plot and character, to be honest. I still read for plot and character, of course, but now I also appreciate sentences, words, themes, authors working through larger ideas and questions beyond the apparent story.
You will have informed opinions. Yes, I loathe Roth and Coeztee and don't need any Franzen or Naipaul in my life, but I know that from firsthand experience. Yes, I realize that the great thing about being human is that we can learn from others' experiences, failures, mistakes, etc. But, when it comes to matters of taste, knowing from your own lived experience has a certain value.
You will finish books. I am not saying, exactly, that there is a moral superiority in finishing books over just abandoning them. I can sympathize with the attitude that life is too short to keep reading something you don't like, even as I disagree with it (life is not that short, it is the longest thing you will do, and if you read at a decent pace you will be fine). That said, as I have stated before, you will miss out if you abandon books that don't grab you quickly, since they can become some of the most enchanting; you will miss out because you will not be building your reading muscles; you will miss out because you won't have that full context for future reading.
Yes, I don't think every book on this list needs to be read, but I do think that the act of reading through a long, challenging list of books has been deeply enriching and improving for me. And yes, you should go do it.
(In case you were wondering, I read The Third Man for book 750; it was ideal for the 750th book in that it was quite enjoyable and quite short; it is by Graham Greene, with whom I have celebrated most of my main milestones, oddly enough).
