The list is the object of his statement, but it’s not the context in which he’s making the statement. When he says he “disavows the list” he’s talking about disavowing the idea that the list published as an appendix to his book is a comprehensive list of western canon. (It’s also clear that he’s gotten this question before and doesn’t want to debate the details of specific items on the list.) But it is clear from his statement that “I probably put in a couple of things that I now would like to kick out” that he’s not disavowing the idea that the vast majority of the books on the list (all but a “couple”) are in fact in his view part of the western canon.

You’re taking a narrow point made in the context of a discussion with literary nerds (“I don’t want to defend every jot and tiddle of this specific list”) and by presenting it without context, you’re making it seem like he’s rejecting that the list is in his view mostly accurate.