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📚 Welcome back to The Reading Life!
I think about death with alarming frequency, and I’m one of the happiest people you’ll ever meet. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Keeping my (hopefully far, far in the future) death in mind has enabled me to live with astonishing intensity and vibrancy, and that’s what Jodi Wellman’s book, You Only Die Once, will help you to do too.
I thought it was a great read, I ended up with about 7 pages full of wonderful notes and takeaways, and so I’ve made it tonight’s featured book recommendation!
On a completely different note, apparently Anthony Jeselnik has a book club?
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but his reviews are actually…really good!
Here’s his book review + Q&A for Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Mother Night.
I also mentioned a while back that I’m going to start a free book club of my own on Skool, and that’s almost ready! I’ll be opening the doors on that soon.
And of course, I also have my private book club for educational entrepreneurs called Wealth Creators, where we go deep on one book per month. It’s typically a business/productivity book, and May’s Book of the Month is below.
And now, before our coffees get cold, let’s hit the books!
“The most important thing any of us can do is to actively and pragmatically assume our responsibilities as citizens for the world we live in.”
“Three groups will have a particular advantage in the new economy: those who can work well and creatively with intelligent machines, those who are the best at what they do, and those with access to capital.”
Inside my private business mastermind, Wealth Creators, we’re tackling one nonfiction book per month and implementing its lessons inside our businesses.
This month’s book is Deep Work, by Cal Newport, an incredibly influential productivity book about achieving deep, sustained focus, and doing excellent work.
Click here to claim your free trial, and join our business book club for educational entrepreneurs!
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 1,490 books, including 36 books so far this year, and if you’re interested, here’s my full Reading List.
“This book is dedicated to the Grim Reaper - as a sign of respect for the inspiration he is to live an Astonishingly Alive Life. I see you there, lurking in the shadows, Grim. Let’s make a deal: I’ll seize the day, and you can have the night shift.”
Jodi kicks off the discussion about kicking the bucket by asking a somewhat disconcerting question: How many Mondays do you have left?
I try to avoid turning people into statistics, but statistically speaking, if you’re like most people, you’ve got about 4,000 Mondays to live.
Digression: With some of the science-fiction-like medical advancements that are happening now, and will happen in the very near future, I believe that people will be living far longer than they ever have before in the entire history of human civilization.
I also don’t think it’s crazy (anymore) to imagine that the first person who’s going to live to 300+ years old has already been born. Seriously. There’s going to be more medical progress being made in the next 50 years than there has been in the last 5,000.
So, you know, I guess don’t die.
That being said, if you were to convince yourself that you’re going to live forever, there’d
be no urgency to live now. “Someday” could become a day on your calendar, and you could defer your real life indefinitely. And that, my astonishingly alive friend, is no way to live!
It’s scarcity that makes things valuable. If diamonds fell from the sky, they wouldn’t be so expensive. If people lived forever, we’d never live now! There’d be no catalyst. No driving force urging us to feel anything at all.
I’ve felt that in my still-relatively-young bones for quite some time, and it’s made my own life deeper, and richer in ways that I don’t even have the space to tell you about here.
Books woke me up, though, and this one did too.
“Let’s not have anyone pity you at the end. Mourn you for years and years? Absolutely. Feel bad for you? We’ll have none of that.”
“I want you to get inspired to maybe make even one small change in how you’re doing this thing called Living to escape the disenchantment of regret, because that’s time well spent in a life where time is at a premium.
My goal is to not just open your eyes to what you want out of life, but to get you figuring out - with tweezer-like specificity - how to carpe those diem. Quoting the millennial classic Mean Girls, ‘Get in, loser.’ We’re going to seize your Mondays.”
“How many of us have slipped into a lifestyle unbecoming of someone fortunate enough to still be alive?”
“Life is the possibility of more possibility.”
“Most of us are out of touch with what makes us happy…woefully ignorant about the things that light the flames in our furnaces. It’s hard to live fully if we’re not cognizant of what makes a fabulously full life for ourselves, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t it fabulous to still have a pulse? We are fortunate to be alive, with all of our potential years ripe and ready, like a red carpet waiting to be rolled out in front of us. We’re going to get you to do this life justice. We’re going to get you to live like you’ve got something to lose.”
“Remember that discontentment with where you are today is precisely what’s required for you to move in the direction of where you want to be.
Change needs a catalyst. I’m out here wearing a sandwich board for the Grim Reaper, because there is no better catalyst out there than him. He’s a self-help master cloaked in disguise.
Sure, he has sinister intentions (he wants us all dead), but if you stick with me, we’ll leverage the gifts he has to offer.”
“Memento mori ups our game. Life is a game after all, and while the Grim Reaper always wins in the end, he levels us up if we’re willing to pay attention. Knowing he’s out there, lurking in the shadows, can make us mindful of the time we have left until he sends the car around.”
“Just remember: you are healthy, and you are loved, and every day the sun rises, you get a new opportunity to feel great. It’s easier said than done, but please, for me, remember how blessed we are to have this thing called life. It’s so beautiful, and I would do anything to have more of it left, so don’t let it pass you by.”
“If you woke up today, and if you get to tuck yourself into bed tonight, you’ve got a lot more to be grateful for than the 151,200 souls who made Grim’s short list for the day.”
“People who’ve had brushes with death know things we don’t, but the rest of us can still live with urgency and intention without having to nudge the bucket first.”
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become enthused about viewing myself as radically inconsequential. After all, I am a respiring piece of carbon-based meat, born in a time and place not of my choosing, here for an infinitesimal amount of time before I will be summarily obliterated and my atoms redistributed.
I find that self-image ironically uplifting at this point in my life. I can be proud of becoming a psychologist and writing some books, but I’m no less enthusiastic about getting a lungful of fresh air on a beautiful day, or taking the dog for a lap around the block.”
“You have an expiry date, I have an expiry date, Tigger your cat has an expiry date, and your carton of milk in the fridge has an expiry date. We’re all just hoping that the milk goes first.”
“Living the life you’ve imagined is entirely possible when you stop taking it for granted.”
“If we don’t pay attention to our slumbering existence, then the lives we lead won’t be too far off from the deaths we’ll die. We only die once…let’s not die bored.”
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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 200,000+ followers across social media, became a full-time creator, and how I’m rapidly growing my audience and my profits in 2026, join us inside Wealth Creators 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
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you:
Creators: Book a 1-1 strategy call with me and I’ll show you how to reach $5K/month in revenue by following a custom plan that we’ll build together.
Join Wealth Creators, my private business mastermind for educational content creators who want to stand out in their niche, build multiple revenue streams, and go full-time with their creative passions.
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