On late style

I just read "on late style" by Edward Said. I often wonder why I read books of this type. Ed operates on a much higher intellectual plane than me. Not withstanding that the book discussed operas. Frankly I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to see an opera, even when bribed with some extreme sexual favors. The book was about the style of famous composers, writers and film makes in their final years before death. Ed is famous for a book about western attitudes in the middle east hidden in literature. Anyway that book is really big, so by reading "on late style" I can say I have read Said, by only struggling through 160 pages. I am not sure who I am trying to impress.