The Reading Life

READING LIST | THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE | PATREON

📚Hey, good evening!

As you may be able to tell, I’ve made some changes to the newsletter.

Before I do anything else, though, I want to welcome all the new people who have joined us recently - there are 1,684 of us here now!

That’s wild!

It’s so cool to have been able to bring you all together around Great Books.

The biggest change is that the newsletter is now called “The Reading Life.”

I’m still going to be sending you 5 of my top book recommendations each week (along with a sample of my personal notes and a summary of each), but I just wanted to take this “rebranding” opportunity to introduce myself to all the new members, and tell some of the old members some things they may not have known about me!

Nothing too scandalous, just some things you may not have heard before…

First off, my name is Matt Karamazov…or is it?

Most people don’t know this, but Karamazov isn’t my REAL last name.

It’s not a big secret or anything…but it is partly a personal safety thing too.

I’ve met some of the most amazing people through the internet - people who have become lifelong friends in real life and other people that I talk to regularly, even though we’ve never met in person.

But there are some REAL crazies out there (as I’m sure you’re aware!), and Tim Ferriss has an extremely important article called 11 Reasons Not to Be Famous that is a case in point.

It’s very well worth reading.

So, “Matt Karamazov” it is!

But there’s an additional benefit, and that is that it reminds me of one of my absolute favorite books of all time every time I see or write “my own” name.

Some of you will have read The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and that’s exactly where my last name comes from.

There’s this one sentence that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since then, nor do I even want to.

It’s this line (from Book VI, I believe):

“Do not weep, life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we do not want to know it, and if we did want to know it, tomorrow there would be paradise the world over.”

So cool!

And now that Karamazov is my last name, I get to think about that quote every single day of my life. Not a bad tradeoff!

So that’s one thing most people don’t know about me. But did you also know that I used to be an overnight security guard at a hospital and that’s how I ended up reading more than 1,000 books?

It’s true!

I didn’t just sit around complaining about the long hours and the shit pay like almost everyone else - I used that time effectively in order to shape my own future reality.

I never stopped reading, and I never gave up training and lifting weights, all throughout those 9+ years I worked that thankless job.

Today, thankfully, I make a full-time living online (thanks to your support!), but I’ve been toiling away in obscurity for a decade or more before you ever heard of me.

I think it’s the same way for most “successful” people.

Now, there are some other stories from my life, like the time I got kicked out of India, or the time I got my nose broken in a heavyweight boxing fight in Russia, but I’ll leave those for another time!

I will leave you with a book recommendation though because I can’t NOT recommend a book. I just can’t.

So here’s one book I’m reading/loving now:

I know this isn’t as long as my book recommendation emails usually are, but it’s still a little long for an introduction, so I’ll sign off here!

Feel free to stop by and say hello on Instagram, though (I just reached 85,000 followers!), and I’m very active on Twitter as well.

You can find all my book notes from more than 1,150+ books that I’ve read on my Patreon and 50+ free book breakdowns here at the Stairway to Wisdom. 

I’ve also got a Substack publication for winners and high achievers called The Competitive Advantage, and you may enjoy some of my video book reviews and business breakdowns on YouTube. 

But most importantly, thank you for sticking with me, and I’ll see you on Wednesday when I drop my 5 best book recommendations for this week!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you apply the wisdom found in the greatest books ever written to your life:

1. I have one spot left open for personal mentoring, and the first choice always goes to the people on my email list. Simply reply to this email if this is something you're interested in working with me on, and I'll let you know more about it, answer all your questions, etc. It's not cheap, but it will be extremely valuable for you if you're willing to work as hard on yourself as I'm willing to work for you.

2. I've released 50 complete, in-depth book breakdowns on the Stairway to Wisdom that respects both your time AND your intelligence and will help you become the person you've always known you were capable of being. Read them for free here.​

3. Join my free Substack publication, The Competitive Advantage, where I teach high-level, high-impact self-discipline tactics and strategies to help you progress toward your goals. You'll also join a supportive community of other winners all moving forward together in the direction of where we want to be in life. Join here.