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Five Books: Amelia Earhart's Autobiography, Reading in the Human Brain, a Prophet of Freedom, and More!
Matt Karamazov
November 03, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 23 minutes
This is a strange list of books, because they don’t really have a whole lot to do with one another, but they’re each fantastic in their own way.
Frederick Douglass has been a massive influence on me for a long time, and I especially love his quote, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
Means a lot more once you learn that he was an escaped slave who taught himself how to read, and went on to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders ever. The biography won the Pulitzer Prize, and it’s not hard to see why.
But the other books are great too, and next week I have sooo many excellent books that I can hardly wait to tell you about as well.
In terms of announcements, I’ll just say that my latest “book mail” video is up now on YouTube, I’ve got a podcast episode coming out soon with the author of Retirement Money Secrets, and also one with Eric Jorgenson, the author of The Anthology of Balaji, one of the best books I read in 2023.
And if you haven’t seen my ultra in-depth, comprehensive breakdown of No B.S. Guide to Succeeding in Business by Breaking All the Rules, it’s out now too!
And now…let’s hit the books!
In This Issue of The Reading Life, We’ve Got:
📖 What I’m Currently Reading
📜 The Book Quote of the Day
🎥 People Keep Sending Me Books!!
✍ My Latest Medium Articles
✅ New Book Releases Coming Soon
📚 Tonight’s Five Main Book Recommendations
🏅 Earn Rewards for Referring This Newsletter
There’s a lot to get to, so let’s hit the books!
Diary of a Gym Addict, by Tom Moss: Tom’s a natural bodybuilder (meaning no performance-enhancing drugs), and his book is one of the most sensible, straightforward books about successful training that I’ve ever seen or read. The fitness industry is a minefield of misinformation, and that’s why when you finally come across someone like Tom, you’ve gotta read his book and never forget what he taught you.
Feel-Good Productivity, by Ali Abdaal: I ran into somebody the other day who didn’t know who Ali Abdaal was. Wild! Anyway, he’s the world’s most-followed productivity expert, and his book is about increasing productivity by cultivating joy. It’s great so far!
Stronger Than Yesterday, by Michael Matthews: Matthews is one of my favorite fitness writers, and at this point I’ll buy and read anything he puts out. This is his newest book, featuring 169 insights for transforming your body, mind, and motivation.
“Just “Think about it: Most people don’t even show up. Of the people who do, most don’t really push themselves. So to show up and be disciplined about daily improvement? You are the rarest of the rare.”
People Keep Sending Me Books and I Don’t Know Where to Put Them All: Ever have a problem that you wish would never go away? Well I have one!
People won't stop sending me new BOOKS!!
Seriously, between the books I buy myself, the ones sent to me by authors and publishers, and the ones I receive as gifts (not to mention the library books I can't stop borrowing)...my house is PACKED full of great books.
I talk about 6 of them here in this video, plus a few related books you may want to check out as well. [Watch Time: 13:19]
If you got value out of this short video, please consider subscribing to my channel and sharing it with a friend. Cheers!
Make ‘Em Laugh & Take Their Money: Lessons from legend and millionaire-maker Dan Kennedy on using humor to sell ANYTHING.
The Crazy Power of Compounding to Help You Overcome Even Your Biggest Mistakes: It’s never too late…until it is.
How You Choose Your Enemies is More Important Than How You Choose Your Friends: The top 11 takeaways from Choose Your Enemies Wisely, by legendary businessman Patrick Bet-David.
The 5 Types of Wealth, by Sahil Bloom: This is one of my most-anticipated reads, and it’s about the 5 types of wealth: Time Wealth, Social Wealth, Mental Wealth, Physical Wealth, and Financial Wealth. Expected: Feb 4, 2025
The Obvious Choice, by Jonathan Goodman: Jonathan’s one of the world's leading experts on helping people simplify their business, and this book offers 15 essential lessons on profit and success that are timeless because they prioritize the humans who buy from you and not erratic and temperamental algorithms. Expected: January 14, 2025
What’s Your Dream?, by Simon Squibb: Simon started his first business while homeless at 16. He later sold it for more money than he’ll ever need, then built up a massive social media audience by giving free help to aspiring entrepreneurs and asking them, “What’s your dream?” Expected: Jan 16, 2025
Below are my complete notes, summaries, and breakdowns of my five main recommendations for tonight! They are…
I don’t want to keep you here all day (I’ve got reading to do), so let’s get right into it!
“Simply put, the amount of money we invest in the first years of a child’s life produces greater returns for each dollar spent than at any other time in the life span.
The implications of all the various types of research on the developing child could not be better understood: society needs to invest in more comprehensive early-childhood programs with more highly trained professionals before the first large gaps in language and learning become permanently cemented in the lives of millions of children.”
Humans were never meant to read. No child is ever born with a gene that directly leads to literacy; the reading circuit has to be intentionally, rigorously cultivated, especially in the early years, and nothing about that process is guaranteed. The ability to read these words is nothing short of a miracle, and you're witnessing it right now in this very moment.
The human brain - this amazingly, vastly complex thing, this technology that you carry around in your head all day - somehow finds a way to connect the functions that already exist, like vision, language, pattern recognition, and more, and combines them in such a way that you're able to follow this sentence and decode its meaning.
Because the ability to read doesn't develop unless it's actively and effectively taught, the brain of a reader has completely different wiring from that of a non-literate person, with implications that follow a person throughout their entire lifespan.
In this book, Reader, Come Home, neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf traces the development - or lack thereof - of the reading circuit and extends her research into questions of what will happen to us as we shift from a literacy-based culture to a more digital one.
The demands of the digital world engage our brains differently, and it's become clear to researchers like Dr. Wolf that the medium(s) in which we read shape how we read, and encourage or discourage the expert analytical and reading skills that are desperately needed today - by everyone.
“When you schedule something, you're making a commitment to yourself, sending yourself a tiny message that says: 'I'm going to do this.'"
Books are like a handful of silence, and books like Make Time are like an oasis of sanity and calm within the chaos of our busy, ever-accelerating lives.
The authors, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are two tech innovators with deep domain experience and expertise who recently made the shift from being part of the problem to being part of the solution.
They've also spent years experimenting with their own habits and routines and engaging thoughtfully with the deeper questions of the proper role of technology in our lives, and the end result is this book.
Make Time presents a dead-simple, 4-step system for setting daily targets, improving focus, eliminating distractions, optimizing energy, and reflecting on what works for you and what doesn't so that you can begin to design your days and become the intentional architect of your own life.
Jake and John also identify two primary obstacles to deep focus and daily joy, which they refer to as Infinity Pools and the Busy Bandwagon.
Briefly, something is an Infinity Pool if you can scroll or refresh at any time to access a virtually infinite reservoir of new and stimulating content that's designed to constantly pull you away from your most important work. Think YouTube, Gmail, Netflix, etc.
The Busy Bandwagon refers to the always-on, go-go-go ethos of relentless productivity and 24/7/365 access to your mind by anyone who wants you to place their priorities ahead of your own. Demanding bosses, unrealistic expectations of coworkers, the treadmill of email, etc.
Make Time isn't supposed to be a complete diagnosis and cure for the state of distraction in the world today - it's just supposed to help you make some time for the things that are actually important to you and to bring more joy into your work and your life. And at that task, the book succeeds beautifully.
Alongside the 4-step strategy for making time, the authors include 87 different tactics that will actually help you do that!
The whole book feels like a conversation between the two of them and the reader - like the person reading it is a really terrific friend of theirs that the authors want to see succeed and be happy.
Gaining distance from your defaults is going to be one of the greatest benefits that this book will give you. It's also uniquely difficult to do, because, by definition, defaults are basically habits. They're automatic, and so we need a consciously-chosen system for changing those defaults.
Make Time is that system; Jake and John are your friendly and knowledgeable guides, and freedom is about to become your new normal.
“‘I think I’d like to learn to fly,’ I told the family casually that evening, knowing full well I’d die if I didn’t. ‘Not a bad idea,’ said my father just as casually. ‘When do you start?’”
This autobiography was an unplanned bookstore find – I didn’t even know she wrote one – but when I saw that Amelia Earhart the famous pilot had an autobiography I bought it immediately. It did not disappoint! She was the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean, and she inspired a generation of men and women to follow their dreams before she mysteriously disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe.
She’s also really, really funny, which I didn’t expect, and she had a deep personal history of reading, which didn’t surprise me one bit. Combine her natural ability and curiosity, her supportive parents and her well-stocked library, and there weren’t many obstacles that could have blocked this lady’s way.
Her optimism for the future was inspiring as well, not to mention her leadership ability in the field of education. She didn’t buy for a second the idea that only men could fly or that girls shouldn’t have the same supportive and aspirational upbringing either. She wasn’t like, militant or anything about it – she was just a positive force for progress and growth and her life is absolutely a testament to that.
There’s also quite a bit of history in here about the first flights, first airports and first discoveries, etc. - some of which are hilarious, and all of which make you glad that history is populated with brilliant stars like Amelia Earhart. I love my parents – indeed, they’ve given me exactly the same kind of support that Amelia’s did – but I can confidently state that with a mother like Amelia Earhart, a child could overcome anything.
“The challenge for all of us is an inner one: to keep going when it seems like no one is paying attention or cares. And to believe that eventually the world will catch up.”
While the rest of the world thinks we're playing checkers, readers of this book will know that we're actually playing chess instead.
The greatest Grand Masters in chess plan many, many moves ahead, and the best players in the game of life tend to do the same thing. That's what The Long Game is all about.
In this book, Dorie Clark doesn't claim that the hard path is the only correct path, but she does explain that we have to be intentional about how we structure our choices and prepare a long-term plan for our careers and lives.
She also shows readers how to enjoy today, because you'll have greater confidence that you're on the right path, instead of scrambling from one imminent deadline to the next, never lifting your head above water for long enough to do any effective planning.
Creating the white space in our lives necessary in order to step back and take in the whole picture is one of the goals of this book, and she presents a ton of high-level concepts to help you make this kind of thinking more common in your daily life.
“For all who wish to escape from outward or inward captivity, they would do well to feel the pulses of this life, and to read the words of this voice. And then go act in the world.”
This is such a rewarding book, and I’m glad I powered through, even though it’s long and fairly dry in some places. It’s the story of Frederick Douglass, a former slave and one of the greatest American heroes ever to have lived – in the 19th century, or pretty much at any other time either.
His future was shaped by books, too.
Douglass grew up never knowing his father – and being separated, tragically, from his mother – and his prospects didn’t look good. As they didn’t for many people of color in racist America at that time. No one was going to go out of their way to teach Fred to read, so he did it himself.
He taught himself to read, and he did so to such a great extent that he became one of the best American writers ever, and he went on to live a sensationally productive and powerful life.
I don’t care all that much about the history of slavery, but Frederick Douglass is such an inspiration to me – and just a really cool, super strong dude – that I absolutely had to read this, and there’s so much great stuff in here. His life’s story is wild, the book itself is wonderfully written, and if you’re into American history at all, you may as well start here.
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OK, that’s it for now…
More excellent book recommendations coming your way soon!
And if you’d like me to buy you a new book every month, (and rapidly scale your personal brand while earning more money in your business), click to join us inside The Competitive Advantage - we’d love to have you!
With that said, I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your week!
Until next time…happy reading!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
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