“I started writing sci-fi stories during my senior year of high school and through college I’d been submitting them to journals and magazines. I still read mostly science fiction but my reading had expanded a bit : I left behind Heinlein and Lackey now. I liked Maureen McHugh, Kelly Link, Lucius Shepherd, Michael Swanwick, Navy Kress, John Brunner, and a whole host of other New Wave and humanist sci-fi writers. One of my favorites, Kelly Link, had attended a graduate program in creative writing, so I figured that I belonged in a writing program as well. In between drinking bouts, I applied to eleven programs.” (p. 28)

Naomi Kanakia was rejected by all 11 creative writing programs. Her solution: “I heard Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post book critic, talk about how Fadiman’s Lifetime Reading Plan had taught him how to read the classics. So I went to Barnes and Noble, bought the book’s latest edition, wrote out a list of all 268 works that it mentioned, and started to read.” (p. 29)

What’s So Great About the Great Books (2026) is Naomi Kanakia’s reading journey through Great Books. Her journey starts out in shaky fashion: “When I began college, really the moment I began, I commenced a vigorous self-study program of alcoholic drinking, and I can’t recall ever fully reading an assigned text. I chose classes with large enrollment sizes and a lecture format, and I rarely went to class unless there was a midterm or a final. I enjoyed college quite a bit, particularly the quarter where I dropped LSD every weekend.” (p. 53)

Off to a dubious start, Naomi Kanakia stumbles in a course called INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES. “My course syllabus contained Plato’s Republic, Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo, and Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, among others–I didn’t read any of thes books, because I was too busy drinking…” (p. 54)

Not a promising college experience so far. But wait, there’s more! “I identified as gay and was sporadically hooking up with men from the internet, but it wasn’t totally satisfying to me, and that activity eventually tailed off.” (p. 206) Not surprisingly, Naomi Kanakia started going to therapy and started taking anti-depressants.

I bring up Naomi Kanakia’s troubles because What’s So Great About the Great Books shows how Great Books helps her get her Life together so she could become a successful writer and blogger. Actually Great Books save her.

What’s So Great About the Great Books includes a list of 250 Great Books and Naomi Kanakia discusses many of the books that changed her Life. Yes, this is an unusual book with an important message. Do you like Great Books? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Why should I read the Great Books?

pp. 1-14

What do you mean by “The Great Books”?

pp. 15-27

Have people always read the Great Books?

pp. 28-36

Isn’t it true that the Great Books are too difficult to read on your own?

pp. 37-60

Where did your list of Great Books come from?

pp. 61-78

Aren’t the Great Books kinda problematic?

pp. 79-102

Why not read other books that are equally beautiful but have better politics?

pp. 103-115

Does it matter what we read? Isn’t it more important to develop our thinking skills?

pp. 116-134

How do we know whether a book is “Great”?

pp. 135-151

Why do we need a list at all?

pp. 152-173

When we say, “The Great Books are worth reading,” do other people hear, “White men are inherently superior”?

pp. 174-181

Can’t reading the Great Books be psychologically damaging for marginalized people?

pp. 182-197

Weren’t some of the Great Books written by reprehensible people?

pp. 198-203

What if, at the end of the day, I simply prefer to read other books?

pp. 204-216

Acknowledgments

pp. 217-218

Appendix—How do I start reading the Great Books?

pp. 219-240

Notes

pp. 241-246

Works Cited

pp. 247-256

Index

pp. 257-262