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My Top 5 Favorite Books of 2025
Matt Karamazov
January 13, 2026
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“There were a hundred obstacles and hurdles in those days, visible and invisible, to keep women in their place - which was firmly believed to be on a pedestal before marriage and in the kitchen and nursery directly afterward.
Fortunately for all of us, society has wised up somewhat; but the change came too late for my mother. So she didn’t become rich. She had a decent career, that’s all.
She earned enough to support my brother and me and to provide us with more than just the necessities of life. And she married again and became a pillar of the community.
But I know that she could have done it, had she been prepared for the unpleasantness, the sheer nastiness that would have been unleashed upon her if she had chosen to say: ‘To hell with them. Let’s go!’”
The Book of the Month inside Creator Launch Academy for December is How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis. We’re taking one nonfiction book per month, and relentlessly applying it to our businesses. Join us.
🏅 Welcome Back to The Competitive Advantage!
My latest YouTube video covers the Top 20 best books I read in 2025, but today I also wanted to share with you my FIRST YouTube video.
Mostly because of how terrible it is.
I almost don’t want you to watch it. It honestly hurt me a little bit to sit through it, but there it is. It’s a book review of a really funny book, called We Learn Nothing, by Tim Kreider.
It has its moments, sure, but another reason I share it is to remind you that if you stick with something for long enough, you WILL make progress. You WILL get better.
YOU WILL WIN.
Now, today, 3,000+ subscribers later, my videos are sooo much better, I have sponsors, I make a full time living talking about books on the internet - all things I never could have imagined at the time of recording that first video.
I mean, I could IMAGINE it, but it still felt so distant.
What I’m saying to you is this: Do NOT - I repeat, DO NOT - give up.
Publish that first video. Then another one. Then another one after that. Select just one thing you can improve on in ever subsequent video, do your best, stick with it, and one day YOU can look back in embarrassment at how bad YOUR first video was.
If you want my personal help to add between $1-5K/month in monthly recurring revenue to your creator business, and grow your audience and authority exponentially at the same time, Creator Launch Academy is exactly where you need to be. Join here.
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 1,459 books, including 5 books so far this year, and if you’re interested, here’s my full Reading List.
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DAYS LEFT UNTIL I ACCEPT DELIVERY: 78
*Buy My New Lamborghini Huracan | ON TRACK
*Upload 200 Advantage Course Videos | 200 LEFT
*Publish 365 New YouTube Videos | 361 LEFT
*Hit Monetization Hours on YouTube | 2,952 LEFT
*Reach 500,000 Instagram Followers | 378,123 LEFT
*Reach 200,000 Threads Followers | 174,437 LEFT
*Reach 200,000 Twitter Followers | 191,580 LEFT
*Reach 50,000 LinkedIn Followers | 48,115 LEFT
*Reach 50,000 Facebook Followers | 48,547 LEFT
*Reach 50,000 Medium Followers | 46,910 LEFT
*Reach 250,000 Newsletter Subscribers | 239,701 LEFT
*Reach 250,000 YouTube Subscribers | 246,939 LEFT
*Reach 50,000 Advantage Subscribers | 48,643 LEFT
*Reach 500 Skool Community Members | 446 LEFT
*Reach 500 Premium Reading Life Members | 461 LEFT
*Reach 500 Patreon Community Supporters | 457 LEFT
*Finish Reading 22 Books | 17 LEFT
*Publish 13 Reading Life Newsletters | 10 LEFT
*Publish 75 Medium Articles | 72 LEFT
*Publish 31 YouTube Videos | 27 LEFT
*Publish 12 New Course Videos | 12 LEFT
*Publish Skool About VSL | INCOMPLETE
*Update Author Marketing Page | INCOMPLETE
*Update My Coaching Page | INCOMPLETE
*Update My Instagram Profile | INCOMPLETE
*Update My Resources Page | INCOMPLETE
*Update My YouTube Channel | INCOMPLETE
*Update My Welcome Sequence | INCOMPLETE
*Update 50 New Patreon Book Notes | 50 LEFT
*Organize My YouTube Studio | INCOMPLETE
*Outline 30 Medium Articles | 20 LEFT
*Publish 18 Medium Articles | 16 LEFT
*Publish 4 Reading Life Newsletters | 2 LEFT
*Publish 3 Creator Launch Academy Videos | 3 LEFT
*Publish 7 YouTube Videos | 5 LEFT
*Record 7 YouTube Videos | 5 LEFT
*Script 14 YouTube Videos | 7 LEFT
*Reorganize My YouTube Studio | INCOMPLETE
*Update My YouTube Channel | INCOMPLETE
*Update Author Promotion Page | INCOMPLETE
*Update 10 Patreon Book Notes | 0 NOTES UPDATED
DATE RANGE: January 1st—14th
Woke Up: 10:00AM
Sleep Quality: 85%
Pages Read: 45
Workout: Rest Day
Work Completed:
Posted 1x on Instagram
Posted 3x on Twitter
Posted 3x on Threads
Posted 3x on LinkedIn
Posted 3x on Facebook
Published 1 YouTube Video
Worked on The Reading Life Newsletter
Worked on Creating Sponsorship Deliverables
Worked on Current Author Campaigns
Managed Creator Launch Academy Community on Skool
Completely Organized My Workflow for Tomorrow
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January’s been getting away from me a little bit, content-wise, but I’m in a VERY good position on a lot of things, and making tremendous progress. No complaints here!
Tomorrow’s going to be PACKED though, as I’ve got a Reading Life newsletter going out, Medium articles, Instagram reels, other content, etc. Going to be a long day, but very profitable :)
But eh, I’m gonna go read for a bit before bed, and I’ll talk to you soon!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you:
Book a 1-1 strategy call with me and we’ll get you up to $5K/month in revenue by following a custom plan we’ll build together.
Become a Premium Member of The Reading Life newsletter and enjoy unlimited access to 150+ Premium Book Breakdowns, my complete notes from 1,400+ books, exclusive discounts, and more.
Join Creator Launch Academy, 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.