From their favorite books and weird hobbies, to their stints in jail and philanthropic work, Billionaire Trivia reveals the lesser-known facts about America’s billionaires. (Buy on Amazon)
📚 Welcome back to The Reading Life!
The list of books I read last month doesn’t even make sense.
I mean, three of the books have some version of the word “millionaire” in the title, two are about the magic of books and libraries, one is about space exploration and the far future of humanity, another is about the Ultimate Nature of Reality…
It’s a varied list, I guess is what I’m trying to say. All over the place.
Not every book was a masterpiece, sure, and I never expect you to agree with all of my reading choices, but I found enough worthwhile thoughts and ideas inside each one that they kept me reading, and at least one of them was legitimately life-changing.
Here tonight I’ll give you a brief summary of each one, my thoughts, how they changed me/how I’m applying them, and whether I’m likely to recommend them to you.
For anyone who’s new to The Reading Life, this issue looks a little bit different, but the next issue will look much more familiar. I am working on some big changes though, including a free book club on Skool (likely launching next week), and a few more book-related things I’m sure you’ll like. I’ll keep you posted!
Now though, before our coffees get cold, let’s hit the books!
Tonight, Inside The Reading Life, We’ve Got:
“Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus’ works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella.”
“You aren’t stuck with the body you have. You can make it better, even if you’ve mishandled it, and it’s far simpler than many people believe.
Even better, once you start changing your body, you’ll realize that you also have the power to change your life.”
Inside my private business mastermind, Creator Launch Academy, we’re tackling one nonfiction book per month and implementing its lessons inside our businesses.
This month’s book is Stronger Than Yesterday, by Michael Matthews, which is technically a fitness book, but also a fantastic book about life and how to improve yours.
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, I’ve read exactly 1,479 books, including 25 books so far this year, and if you’re interested, here’s my full Reading List.
“I don’t want to be the most interesting man in the world; I want to be the most interested man in the world.”
This is a solid read by a former Secret Service agent with 25 years of experience investigating crimes, interrogating people, and catching the bad guys in their lies.
There’s a ton of great stuff in here about getting along with people in more everyday conversations too, which is going to be more immediately applicable to a wider range of people.
I don’t really have any interrogations coming up or anything, but I do want to smooth my way through the world and get what I want (same as you), and this book is great for that.
On the lying front though, what’s especially key to understand is that what you’re looking for are deviations from a person’s normal responses, not some magic “tell” that instantly gives them away as a liar. That’s something that most people tend to miss.
It’s not that, “Oh, he looked down and to the left, then coughed, so he must be lying.” It’s more like, “Hmm, he doesn’t normally do that, so I wonder if there’s more here that he’s not telling me?” A very useful book for sure! Both practical and tactical.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
“Books served many purposes in Rome, not always having much to do with reading.”
This is an incredibly well-researched book on the history of libraries and the development of the written word.
Even though I wasn’t terribly interested in every literary age they described (for example, I learned much more about monasteries than I ever wanted to learn), on balance it was a fantastic read.
What I found especially interesting (not to mention hopeful and optimistic) is the fact that, even though reading has been endangered in every age — threatened by everyone from vicious dictators to prudish parents and librarians — books always come back.
Through fires, plagues, wars, and everything else, reading never disappeared completely, and I don’t think it ever will. Readers and book lovers are born again in every age, and this “book about books” proves it.
“Books about books” are some of my favorites, by the way, and this is one of the best I’ve come across. Highly recommend for book nerds!
Difficulty Rating: Medium
“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding.”
Okay, so what do I say about The Kybalion? It’s one of those books that’s not for everybody, and the author does also have this lawyerly, textbook-ish style that’s not always riveting. And of course the book itself is more on the mystical, esoteric side. But it’s wonderful in its own way.
The Kybalion seeks to explain the Seven Cosmic Laws governing reality and the universe — from the Law of Causation, to the Law of Compensation, Polarity, Unity in Diversity, and more.
Drawing on religious texts ranging from the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita, to early-twentieth-century philosophy and various New Thought writers and intellectuals, it is deep.
There are certainly easier entry points into the ideas of cosmic unity, evolution, and development — the essential “Oneness” pervading all things — but it’s worth reading!
The backstory behind the creation of the book is fascinating as well, which is why I recommend getting the unabridged version with the introduction by Philip Deslippe.
Difficulty Rating: Medium
“Most stock markets go up most of the time.”
Talk about a rapid change of subject from that last book!
Just Keep Buying is a personal finance book that argues that one of the best investment strategies is just to keep investing what you can into the stock market, across various asset classes, for as long as you can, or until you reach your financial goals.
I mean, it’s a 200-page book, so there’s more to it than that, but that’s what the title refers to. Essentially, most stock markets go up most of the time, and as long as you’re patient, as long as you work on increasing your income, and as long as you don’t blow all your money on stupid silly shit, you’re probably going to make it.
Nick also has another book called The Wealth Ladder that I enjoyed even more than this one, and it’s about the six “Levels” of wealth.
It’s divided into chapters explaining the dangers and opportunities present on each level, how you can move to the next one, and why you might not even want to. Highly recommend that one as well!
Difficulty Rating: Easy
“I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days.”
This is another incredible book about libraries (obviously), by the author of A History of Reading.
However, whereas The Library (above) was a more wide-ranging history of all libraries, The Library at Night more closely resembles a tour of Manguel’s library and all the various associations it calls up for him. It’s more personal.
Through chapters like “The Library as Myth,” “The Library as Order,” “The Library as Oblivion,” and “The Library as Home,” etc., he explores what all libraries have in common, how he built his own library, what his books mean to him, and why he reads at all.
His earlier book (above) was astonishingly good, and so is this one! If you’re a book lover (which I’m assuming you are), you’ll likely “get” this one right away. After all, he’s speaking directly to us!
Difficulty Rating: Easy
“What’s the price of what I want? And am I willing to pay it?”
This book is way funnier than it has any right to be, and Robert Ringer also has incredible success advice on top of that. It’s both hilarious and wise, and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.
The first book of his that I’ve read, Winning Through Intimidation, was really good too! And again, way funnier than it had any right to be. It’s also not a book about how to intimidate people to get what you want, which is why probably more than a few people have been disappointed after buying it!
Anyway, Million Dollar Habits is packed with amazing advice about self-discipline, taking action, not getting stepped on, keeping your word, adopting life-enhancing attitudes, seeing reality clearly, living in the moment and a whole lot more.
It’s just incredible in so many ways, and even if you wouldn’t typically read a book called Million Dollar Habits, I urge you to make an exception just this once! My guess is that you may actually really enjoy it.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
“Just because you have enough money doesn’t mean you can afford it.”
This is another personal finance book, one that I read because I follow the author online and have always found his advice to be top-notch.
And while I wouldn’t say this book “changed my life” or anything, it did change my behavior a bit, and motivated me to open some additional savings accounts, as well as to organize my financial life a bit more.
If you’ve read any number of investing books before, you’re not likely to encounter much in here that’s “life-changing” either, but that said, I finished it because on a page-by-page basis I felt that it was worth reading.
I value my time incredibly highly, and I don’t finish bad books. It’s just that it was a little more basic than other books that would benefit me even more.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
“Physics is law. Everything else is a recommendation.”
Stay with me on this one, even though I know many people reading this are already saying, “NOPE!”
I gotta say, though, there is literally zero politics in here, and very little about his family life either. It’s ALL about success, vision, purpose, and ensuring humanity’s future among the stars.
I positively ripped through this book, taking pages and pages of notes all the way through — I basically had my life changed sixteen times in 300+ pages. It’s sooo good. And what a project to put together too! Man, the effort that went into this…
The author (the CEO of Scribe Media) spent a good 5 years and thousands of hours going through all of Elon’s old podcast appearances, interviews, writings, etc., and distilling all his best advice on building companies, positively impacting the future, and saving humanity.
Some people just aren’t going to be able to set aside their personal feelings about the guy for long enough to gain any meaningful value from this book, which is really a shame, because there’s so much great stuff in here.
If only they could stop themselves from foaming at the mouth long enough to find it! It’s worth reading, I’m telling you. And especially if you love humanity and care about its survival and its future!
Difficulty Rating: Easy
“An internet connection doesn’t guarantee human connection.”
The last book I read in March was actually half-decent, but I gotta agree with some of the 3-star reviews on this one!
That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s just that the advice is a little on the basic side (and I mean hey, a review of the fundamentals can be good!). Plus there’s basically a swear word every two pages, which got old fast.
I’m not a prude or anything, it’s just that it started to be a little much. Don’t get me wrong, I fucking swear sometimes too, but it was just…jarring sometimes, that’s all. Anyway…
It’s still worth reading (and again, I don’t finish 100% bad books!), but if you read books like Psycho-Cybernetics, The Psychology of Money, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, and The Millionaire Fastlane, you can get much more out of those than you would with Steven’s book. I still like his podcast though!
Difficulty Rating: Easy
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OK, that’s it for now…
I’ve got plenty more excellent book recommendations coming your way soon though!
There’s also my YouTube channel, where I publish book reviews, reading updates, and more each week.
And if you want to learn how I’ve built an audience of 180,000+ followers across social media, became a full-time creator, and how I’m rapidly growing my audience and scaling my profits in 2025, join us inside Creator Launch Academy and that’s exactly what I’ll teach you — we’d 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 time…happy reading!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
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