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10 Rare Books That Hold Tremendous Power
Matt Karamazov
August 06, 2025 ā¢ Estimated Reading Time: 36 minutes
YOUTUBE š CREATOR LAUNCH ACADEMY š PATREON
A few popular books are popular for a reason, but in a world where you can literally buy your way onto the New York Times Bestseller list, thereās a lot of signal that gets lost in the noise.
Tonight Iām bringing you ten relatively unknown books that you may not have heard of, but that have each positively impacted my life profoundly.
Some were random bookstore finds, others were served up to me by various algorithms, and still others were recommended to me by thoughtful, curious, and well-read friends whose taste in books I trust.
Thereās fiction and nonfiction, philosophy, psychology, and economics, and one or two that defy classification. Timeless classics that I can no longer imagine what my life looked like without.
If youāre tired of reading āinfluencer booksā and NYT slop, take a look at āthe list less "traveled by.ā I hope you find your next favorite book in here.
New YouTube Video: 3 Books That Changed My Life the MOST (Out of 150+ Books)
Before we get into these ten rare, tremendously powerful books, Iāll just offer up a couple more recommendations.
First, a family friend (and one of Canadaās most trusted and prominent foreign correspondents), Brian Stewart just announced his forthcoming memoir, On the Ground.
Iāve also been thinking that I should re-read more books, and so a few absolutely incredible books that Iāll be revisiting soon (likely reading 1 per month) include Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, and The Laws of Human Nature, by Robert Greene.
But then again, theyāll have to compete against all the new (to me) books that I havenāt read yet, like The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, and The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James!
Anyway, before our coffees get coldā¦letās read!
Tonight, Inside The Reading Life, Weāve Got:
āGoals and contingencies, as Iāve said, are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it.
To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them.
To love the plateau is to love what is most essential and enduring in your life.ā
āNone of the 2,000 books picking apart Buffet's success are titled This Guy Has Been Investing Consistently for Three-Quarters of a Century. But we know that's the key to the majority of his success. It's just hard to wrap your head around that math because it's not intuitive.
There are books on economic cycles, trading strategies, and sector bets. But the most powerful and important book should be called Shut Up and Wait. It's just one page with a long-term chart of economic growth."
Inside my private business mastermind, Creator Launch Academy, weāre tackling one nonfiction book per week and implementing its lessons inside our businesses.
This weekās book is The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel, a great book about the crazy things we all do with money, why we do them, and how we can (slowly, eventually) learn to behave differently. Click here to claim your free trial, and join our business book club for educational content creators!
After achieving my (somewhat meaningless) goal of reading 1,000 books before I turned 30, I set a new (also meaningless but cool) goal of reading 10,000 books. As of today, Iāve read exactly 1,402 books, including 50 books so far this year, and if youāre interested, hereās my full Reading List.
āAnd I wish I had the power to tell them that the despair of their hearts was not to be final, and their night was not without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost. For that which they died to save can never perish.
Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. And man will go on. Man, not men.ā
This short, dystopian novel is not widely read, and not discussed nearly as often as (great) books like The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged - even though Atlas Shrugged is about 400 pages too long.
Anthem, however, is super short and incredibly powerful. Itās about a future, collectivist society where its citizens are deprived of human names and identities, and everyone refers to themselves as āwe.ā No one uses the word āI.ā
The State controls the lives of the entire population, where āweā are conceived in āPalaces of Matingā and die in the Home of the Useless.
The main character, Equality 7-2521, however, is curious and intelligent, eventually renaming himself āPrometheus,ā and falling in love with Liberty 5-3000, though she never becomes as developed in the novel as he does.
Eventually, Prometheus rediscovers electricity (fire) while conducting experiments in an abandoned tunnel he finds, and ends up creating a lightbulb. When he tries to offer his new invention to the Council in the hope of gaining recognition for his ingenuity and initiative, it goes about as well as youād expect.
Personally, I think this is one of Ayn Randās strongest books, and I feel fortunate that I discovered it before I suffered through all 500+ pages of We the Living.
Although she didnāt change my opinion that no one is self-made - that we live, grow, and expand ourselves with the help of others - she strengthened my own sense of āI,ā my unshakeable belief that, ultimately, I am my own person, possessed of my own thoughts and ideals, immovable against the forces of cultural gravity that conspire to try and turn me into everyone else.
āYou should know by now that a man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting.
A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it; and then he looks and rejoices and laughs; and then he sees and knows.
He knows that his life will be over altogether too soon; he knows that he, as well as everybody else, is not going anywhere; he knows, because he sees, that nothing is more important than anything else.
In other words, a man of knowledge has no honor, no dignity, no family, no name, no country, but only life to be lived, and under these circumstances his only tie to his fellow men is his controlled folly.ā
Reading Carlos Castaneda feels like gaining access to secret knowledge. I realize that this is likely intentional on his part, and of course there are those super-weird cult-ish aspects of his personal life to be aware of, but Iām an unabashed Castaneda fan and likely always will be.
His books reveal an unspoken - unspeakable - mystical undercurrent to daily reality that I find incredibly exciting.
This is the second book in the series, after The Teachings of Don Juan, and it follows Carlosās intensely personal journey of self-discovery through his mentorship with Don Juan, and his experimentation with psychedelics and various other practices.
Itās not meant to be read literally - despite what Castaneda might have you believe - but thereās so much great stuff in here. Read my notes below.
Why I love Castaneda is that his work inspires you to think deeply about the fundamental nature of reality, the magic of everyday life, and your personal place within the order of the cosmos.
His books are about experiencing life - deeply, intensely, and vividly - and about seeing everything as infinitely more miraculous than it may first appear. It doesnāt matter whether the stories he tells are ātrueā or not. Theyāre still True.
āThere is nothing in man or nature which would prevent us from taking some control of our destiny and making the world a saner place for our children.ā
Ernest Becker won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, The Denial of Death (one of my favorite books of all time), which showed how most of human achievement, conflict, and striving is rooted in the subconscious fear of death.
Escape from Evil is Beckerās follow-up to The Denial of Death, the last book he published before his own death in 1975. Itās quite a bit darker than Denial, and more explicitly focused on how the human, subconscious fear of death leads to evil on a cultural and historical scale. Essentially, itās Terror Management Theory before it was cool.
The basic argument is this: Humans are the only creatures on earth who are aware of the fact that theyāre going to die, and that they are relatively powerless against the awesome forces of Nature.
In the cosmic scheme of things, a human lifetime simply isnāt long enough to achieve anything thatās going to survive the silence and indifference of the universe. Armed with this realization, culture, religion, status, and wealth become psychological shields against that fear of irrelevance. Symbolic immortality is what people are after, according to Becker.
We āearnā our immortality by identifying with something larger than ourselves, and, viewed in this manner, we can see the entirety of culture, religion, morality, and nationalism as a collective delusion with the sole purpose of helping people cope with the (very real) idea of their inevitable death.
Oh, you thought this was a comedy?!
Escape from Evil is something else entirely. Agree or disagree with Beckerās cosmological viewpoint, but itās because our death-anxiety is so unbearable to us that we project evil outward onto others. Onto other threats to our āimmortality projectsā that weāve set up as psychological defences.
Constant warfare isnāt the daily reality on this planet anymore, of course. Most of us - the civilized ones, at least - have learned to live with one another. But the evil has to be projected onto something; our egos have to be protected somehow.
Which is why, according to Becker, consumerism and status consciousness step in as new immortality projects when our old ones prove unworkable: people chase legacy, wealth, and recognition as cheap substitutes for spiritual salvation and transcendence.
Part of the problem that Becker identifies (correctly, I believe) is that society generally lacks productive outlets for the subconscious forces of human nature. There are so few avenues for genuine heroism, no options open for heroic transcendence of the human predicament. A near-total lack of personal courage in the face of death.
Overall, this is a pretty dark book. Iām sure I donāt have to point that out!
But even though Becker was pessimistic about the chances that most people would ever overcome their fear of death and live authentically and courageously within an uncaring universe, he wasnāt cynical. He actually enjoyed being alive!
In fact, he was so beloved by his students at San Francisco State that when the university terminated his teaching contract, they banded together and offered to pay his salary out of their own pockets.
You can probably see why heās one of my favorite people too, and why his books are among my absolute favorites. This one, but also The Denial of Death and The Birth and Death of Meaning.
Because Ernest Becker didnāt hate humanity - he loved people. And through his books, he taught us that evil is not invincible. Itās within us, but not a permanent part of us.
And most importantly for our future prospects of global peace and understanding, we now realize that the root of evil isnāt hatred. Itās fear.
āIf the whole world were to appear to mortals now, for the first time; if it was suddenly and unexpectedly exposed to their view; what could one think of more marvelous than these things, and which mankind would less have dared to believe?"
If you took a few required philosophy courses in university, hated it, and subsequently wrote off philosophy forever as ānot really my thing,ā then it probably wasnāt philosophy.
Hadotās book is about real, honest to goodness philosophy (a word that means love of wisdom), and itās about real people (everyone from slaves to Roman Emperors) who used it to become mentally stronger, more joyful, less afraid, and more fully alive.
I wonāt say that this is an easy read because itās not. Itās more of a philosophy textbook than something youād bring with you to the beach, but the whole purpose is to show you that philosophyās a real, live activity, that can actually improve your one and only life.
Reading it, youāll see why people like Socrates felt that real communication with other human beings was infinitely superior to knowledge gained from books, how Marcus Aurelius used philosophy to help him run the Roman Empire without losing his mind, and how you can go from where you are now, to where you want to be.
āThe evil that is within us is finite, as we are. The good by whose help we fight it is outside us and is infinite. Therefore it is absolutely sure that evil will be vanquished.ā
Iād like to introduce you to one of my favorite people ever. Her name is Simone Weil, and Iāve learned more from her than almost anyone Iāve ever read or been in contact with, ever. Thatās three āeversā I just used. That shows you how serious I am!
She might actually be one of the greatest and most compassionate human beings who ever lived, and whenever I think of truth, or goodness, or beauty, or justice, I tend to think of her.
She taught me how to listen, how to really āseeā other people, how to demand the most from myself, and how to give the most of myself. In fact, Albert Camus called her āthe only great spirit of our time.ā
This was back in the middle of the 20th century, as she died in 1943 at the age of 34.
Why so young? The answer is that she starved herself to death - defying her doctorās orders to eat - in solidarity with the French citizens living under Nazi occupation during World War 2.
She refused to eat any more food than the French people were allowed to eat (she was living in England at this time) under German rule, and with eating such a small amount of food, she died of malnutrition.
I have mixed feelings about this. Of course, what she did was so completely selfless and incredible and totally in line with who she was as a person and with what she believed to be true.
On the other hand, what could such a brilliant philosopher like her have contributed through her works that would have had a much larger positive impact on the future health of humanity?
No one knows, and thatās part of the tragedy and absurdity of her death.
What you almost have to respect about her though is her total commitment to her ideals. Unlike pseudo-intellectuals like Karl Marx and friends, she actually spent time working in factories herself so that she could understand more about the life of the urban poor and gain insight into what they were actually like and what they needed.
She didnāt disdain physical labor but instead embraced it as a chance to get closer to whatās most real. She thought it unusual - as I do - that we complain about low pay, but not about soul-crushing work itself. Itās like saying, āThatās not enough money! My soul is worth at least twice that amount!ā
Ridiculous, right?
As I hope youāll see from these book notes below, Simone Weil was a very special philosopher, a woman of unimpeachable intellectual honesty, and the possessor of the type of limitless compassion - and stubbornness - that could have only ended with her death. In so many ways, I just wanna be like her!
āIf you have the rewards, you must also get some of the risks, not let others pay the price of your mistakes. If you inflict risk on others, and they are harmed, you need to pay some price for it.ā
Iāve never read a Nassim Taleb book that didnāt fundamentally change how I view the world, and this oneās no exception. In a sentence, itās about why you should never trust anyone who doesnāt suffer the consequences of their own bad advice, and why a person is virtuous only insofar as theyāve taken a real risk for what they believe.
Sharing the downside risk when something goes wrong is a key component of fairness, and the strength of any system is tested by exposure to adverse events.
Or, in the immortal words of Warren Buffet, when the tide goes out, you can see whoās been swimming naked.
Throughout the book, Taleb shows how accountability through risk is the only way to build trust, fairness, and long-term stability into any system.
Bankers and economists should lose something when the people who take their advice lose everything. The families of politicians should have to go to war. And academicsā¦well, Taleb takes a dim view of academics!
Skin in the Game is also quite practical, in that it provides you with criteria you can use to determine how much you should believe people when they offer you advice. If their bad advice will never come back to haunt them, you probably shouldnāt listen to them.
It also gives you something to live up to, since you canāt call yourself ethical or virtuous if you donāt have skin in the game yourself.
"Yea-saying depends on the will to live. But the will to live depends upon nothing except the man himself; it can be deepened, broadened by meditation, by constant mental struggle, by an act of faith that commits itself to affirming life at all costs."
If ordinary life usually seems a bit...well, ordinary...it may be because the way most human beings live their lives can be compared to an extraordinarily powerful jet airplane flying on only one engine. That's Colin Wilson's basic contention in The Outsider, where he outlines his fundamentally optimistic philosophy of New Existentialism.
It's meant to contrast with the "old" existentialism of philosophers such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and others for whom the universe is a rather cold, dreary, abysmal place.
While they wrote about futility, "Being-towards-death," the absurd, and the inevitability of suffering, it was always Colin Wilson's contention that there is a deeper, more meaningful, and vibrant dimension to life that all human beings have access to if only they would put forth the proper effort.
I usually avoid using the words "most people," because I don't know "most people."
However, it's a safe assumption that most people are nowhere even close to reaching their full potential or to living as deeply and intensely as they could be living if they tried. Most people just "coast" on one engine, never even realizing that they are much more powerful than they've ever imagined.
Human beings, according to Wilson, possess a "visionary capacity" that, if they could only tap into it, would allow them to say "Yes" to life, in spite of everything.
He doesn't deny the existence of suffering and the harshness of life, but in this book, he examines the lives of individuals he called "Outsiders," who were able to come closest to realizing this ultimately optimistic view of life and the universe.
The Outsider can be thought of as a survey of some of the most profound responses to urgent questions about existence, meaning in life, and how to confront death. Wilson explores the lives of key literary and cultural figures such as Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, T.E. Lawrence, Vincent van Gogh, H.G. Wells, George Gurdjieff, and a multitude of others, discussing their effects on society, and society's effects on them.
I just happened upon this book one time ā I had never heard of it before ā and thought it looked interesting, given that he references philosophers and writers I enjoyed reading, such as Kierkegaard, Camus, Dostoyevsky, etc.
I had no idea that it would completely change my life forever after and would radically alter how I lived out each day of my one and only life.
āIf we take this journey together, and simply observe as we go along the extraordinary width and depth and beauty of life, then out of this observation may come a love...which is a state of being free of all demand...and we may perhaps be awakened to something far more significant than the boredom and frustration, the emptiness and despair of our daily lives.ā
This book was my first introduction to Krishnamurti, and he took me completely by surprise with his total rejection of authority, and his insistence on seeking the truth for oneself, not relying on any external sources of knowledge or truth.
The Revolution from Within is a collection of public talks he gave throughout the world in the 1950s, where he asks, again and again, whether or not the mind can be free of its own projections, and whether the limited human mind can ever perceive the unlimited nature of ultimate truth.
In fact, Krishnamurti speaks mostly in questions. He proceeds very slowly, and uncovers more and more questions in slowly escalating stages, the whole point of which is to provoke independent thought and objectless awareness in the minds of his listeners.
If Jiddu Krishnamurti had a dominant message, it would be that there must be a revolution in our thinking. Not an outward revolution, which is just the continuation of conditioned thought, slightly adapted according to some other philosophy (whatever it may be), but a complete and total rejection of external authority, ideology, and belief.
The whole book is just incredible, covering ideas as diverse as war and global conflict, parenting and relationships, education, spiritual belief, critical thinking, self-awareness, and personal freedom.
After I finished reading the transcript of each lecture - and even while I was reading them - I could feel myself being transformed. I knew that Iād never live the same way again, see the world the same way again, and sure enough, I never did.
āWhatās the point of living if we donāt die at the end of it?ā
Literary fiction doesnāt get nearly the same level of attention as it did even a few years ago, but Don DeLillo is one of the grand masters of the genre and this is one of my favorite books of his. Itās also about two of my favorite topics: staring down Death and embracing Life.
Zero K is a shorter novel about a man named Jeffrey Lockhart, whose father, Ross, a billionaire in his sixties, is the main investor in this secret compound way out in the desert, where they work to cryogenically preserve rich people for a future time when medical science can save them and bring them back to life.
Jeff isā¦less than enthusiastic about the aims and purposes of this secret compound, distrusts his father, and fears for the well-being (physical, mental, spiritual) of Rossās wife, Artis, who is set to go under the ice for the foreseeable future.
Against all this, Jeff is committed to experiencing āthe mingled astonishments of our time, here, on earthā while balancing, on the one hand, the horrors of the world and, on the other, the āabsurd good newsā of being alive at all. I loved virtually everything about this book and I wish it were as long as DeLilloās other classic, Underworld!
āThose two paths are equally uplifting and rugged; both can lead to the summit. To act as though death does not exist and to act with death in mind at every moment ā perhaps both paths are the same.ā
Well, great, now I have to read every single other book that Kazantzakis has ever written. Seriously, Zorba the Greek is one of the most powerful, life-affirming books youāre ever likely to come across, and I donāt think that anyone who is somewhat alive and breathing can read this book and sit still.
But yes, I might have to mention that since it was written in 1941 it is certainly the product of a different time and it contains some āunpleasantnessā where women are concerned. But I mean, weāre all adults here. We donāt have to agree with every sentiment or the views and opinions of every character in every situation.
Instead, we can sense the Life-Force leaping off every page, the way that Kazantzakis shakes us each by the shoulders, shouting into our ears, āLive! Live now! Breathe deeply! While you still can!ā
Wait, what is the book about? Of course. Well, the unnamed narrator of the book goes into business with an older man, Zorba, and they both go on to operate a lignite mine on the island of Crete.
The narrator is based on Kazantzakis and Zorba is a real person whom he met early in the 20th century and who irrevocably changed the direction of Kazantzakisās one and only life. He also changed mine.
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OK, thatās it for nowā¦
Iāve got plenty more excellent book recommendations coming your way soon though!
Thereās also my YouTube channel, where I publish book reviews, reading updates, and more each week.
And if you want to learn how Iāve built an audience of 160,000+ followers across social media, became a full-time creator, and how Iām rapidly growing my audience and scaling my profits in 2025, join us inside Creator Launch Academy and thatās exactly what Iāll teach you ā weād love to have you in the community!
With that said, I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your day!
Until next timeā¦happy reading!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
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