Shadowing Practice: 7 Books I Wish I Had Read Earlier - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So I thought I'd bring you guys to my favorite bookstore in the world.

This is a place I used to spend a lot of time in the early days of my career.

I thought I'd bring you guys here to share seven books that have been very useful for me in my life, in my career.

All the way from learning how to make money, how to keep money, how to invest money, how to build different mental models for my life, how to deal with stressful situations,

how to deal with growing up and going into different seasons of your life.

When I was living in London, I used to come here every Sunday and just actually sit on

that couch over there and read for hours and hours and hours and pick up two or three used books.

And I can tell you genuinely hand on heart, that changed my life.

So with that being said, after hundreds of books that I've read, here are seven that I think should be very useful for you.

All right, so starting off with book number one, How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis.

I put this book off for so long.

I actually only read this book maybe two or three years ago.

actually because of the title like I saw the title

and I was like okay cool nice another money-making book like you know there's nothing in here

that I just thought it was gonna be very surface level long story short

and I thought it was gonna be a very like tactical self-help business-y book

but a lot of it was actually just genuine life lessons

and a lot of it was reflections at the end of someone's life

which I really appreciate like I'll be honest I know a lot of people

that write books And I know that they write books just for the sake of saying that they've written a book.

And I know that in the book, it's 300 pages of what they could have said literally in five pages.

And one of the things that I love so much about this book, like genuinely, I cannot speak more highly of this book, is he gives advice on how to do very well financially in life.

I think Felix Dennis amassed a net worth of $500 million or something like that.

And that was, you know, 15, 20 years ago.

But he starts it off in a very interesting way.

He starts it off by basically addressing straight out like, okay, why would a person in my position write a book like this?

And he's like, I'm sipping a $5,000 or a $10,000 ball of wine on my private island and I just don't care anymore.

And I really appreciate that because I read a lot of people's books and I get it.

You know, you're still in your career.

You're still like living your life and there's a lot of things

that you don't want to say maybe that aren't politically correct or maybe you might consider yourself getting canceled for it.

And he just does not give a s*.

Like, I think he talks about one season of his life where he spent literally $100 million on booze, high-end escorts, travels, like just all this crazy stuff.

And I just appreciated the honesty more than anything.

And I know that, you know, in life, if you end up doing well for yourself, there are temptations at every corner.

And he's someone who fell into those temptations and came out the other side and was like, hey, this was worth it.

This was not worth it.

And in a world where a lot of books

that they make in today's day and age are very vanilla and very watered down.

I mean, there was some hard, hard hitting business concepts in here.

Some very good stuff on team ownership.

Some very good stuff on why a lot of times it's best to be second

or third in a company and still get compensated very well for it.

A lot of information on raising capital.

A lot of information on when to grow your company.

How to assign, how to hire a great talent like just some really hard-hitting

business stuff mixed in with just like some crazy personal life anecdotes

So I cannot speak more highly of this book as I

said it was the titles threw me off for many years I just never got around to reading it

and when I did it Yeah, I kind of kicked myself

because even in my early days I feel like a lot

of the stuff as I was building my first company this would have been very very useful to me

So I guess this is the perfect encapsulation of never judge a book by its cover

all right coming up to second book i mean listen what

can i say about this this is a classic i've probably bought a hundred plus of these

and given them to friends i've have different hardcover versions of

them this is just a great coffee table book just pick up throughout the day

any time of the day

and you'll always take a different life lesson from of course

marcus aurelius one of the greatest minds in history in my opinion

and it's crazy that this was written thousands of years ago

and yet i feel like a lot of it's still

so applicable even still to this day

and especially for me in my position where I've gone on to do okay for myself in life.

I think it's very important to keep your feet on the ground.

It's very important to stay humble.

It's very important to not bask and soak in the highs of life

and also not be too down in the dumps when things don't go your way.

So yeah, I just appreciate books that are timeless.

I appreciate books that pretty much anyone in life could read and still take something away from it.

And as I said, you can literally come back and reread this book infinite times.

I remember I picked up, but this must have been 2016.

I picked up a hardcover version of this, and I remember at the time, I was like with my first ever girlfriend just sitting.

It was like a beautiful, warm, sunny London day, not like today.

And I was just reading out loud passages of meditation.

So I feel like I don't need to say much about Marcus Aurelius or this book.

It kind of speaks for itself.

I feel like as the years go by, for me, this book becomes even more and more impactful and meaningful.

So this has to be a part of any book collection, in my humble opinion.

So the next book is Way of the Superior Man by David Data.

There's a lot of things that I could say about modern masculinity.

Of course, as a person that didn't grow up without a father, it's something that you have to learn, what it means to be a man.

And I think that there's two very extreme versions in today's day and age.

There's the hyper-masculine, red pill, like that whole world.

And then on the flip side, there's a definitely quite an effort to shame masculinity

and uh quite an effort to make men too feminine

and you know i guess ashamed to be in their masculine uh

so i think for me this is you know was a

very good rudder for you know how to go about masculinity

and thinking about manhood and what it means to be a man

and you know we all have our own different version

and i think um you know

when i think about what what is a man i don't

think your traditional as I said like put your foot down

and shout and be loud and you know this person that's

so out of touch with themselves and not like unaware of their psyche

and unaware of their emotions

but then on the flip side I also don't think it's someone

that gets paralyzed by their emotions and spends every single day

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and every single minute thinking you know so in their head

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and so in their feelings quite frankly

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so this is just an incredible book I read it first time when I must have been 15, 14 or 15, something like that.

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So I was quite fortunate to have read it quite early.

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I'll be honest, I haven't read it in a long time, so I probably should go back to it and see what is said in here.

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Just some very interesting concepts.

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Concepts about spirituality, the dance between the feminine and masculine.

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This is a very interesting book as well.

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I've actually given this to every single girlfriend that I've had, and it's actually helped them understand me a little bit better.

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so I think as a couple it's actually quite an interesting book to read together

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and actually strengthens your relationship

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so especially for those who may be in a similar situation to me

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which is no father in their life I know it's not

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a easy thing to contend with good news is you're a blank canvas you know you there's no influences

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which can be very dangerous because you have to find your own influences

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and you have to set your own direction and I think

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that this book is a very good starting point to make that happen.

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Moving on Onassis in extravagant life.

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Now there are very few people that I would say

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that I look up to in life that he is one of them.

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Now this is a biography about Onassis's life.

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I like imperfect people.

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I like people that live life to the fullest

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and I like people that are imperfect

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and I think this is why I struggle with a lot

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of modern books they're just trying to be too perfect

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and they're trying to be too look at me I have everything in order in my life

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or you know it's just very surface level stuff

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so this biography as you read it through you know you

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see this I was gonna say man you see this boy

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that has to become a man very early on in his

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life you see this boy who grew up in a good financial situation

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that turned very bad very quickly

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and he had to become a man in the house and I guess I relate to that as well.

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Being in a position where I was born in Russia in a place called Dagestan, first four years of my life, definitely not being in any good financial position.

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You know, a single mom, three jobs and then eventually my mom marrying my stepdad, moving to London and things were good until I was 11

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or 12 and they split and then things not being good after that

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and I think I kind of relate to his situation where

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he's just like all of a sudden just thrown straight into the thick of things

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and he has to go from boy to man very very quickly

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and his career from there on is fascinating once again it's filled with not only a lot of business success

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but a lot of debauchery as I said for me personally I just can't I don't know

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if I can read a biography about someone that's just like too perfect

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if that makes sense I don't know if I can find it interesting yeah

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when it's just all about their career success

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or their life success like I like a person where you know 70% of time you like them

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or you love them 10% of time you like hate them

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10% of the time you're confused by them like I like you know

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when people are multifaceted

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and I feel like this book encapsulates Onassis as a person

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of course you know never had the pleasure of meeting him he died in the 70s

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but he's just a very brilliantly flawed character

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and I love brilliantly flawed characters so yeah Onassis is one of the few people that anything about him,

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whether any article, any book, anything that's ever been published about him, I've read it, I've consumed it, I just find his life so fascinating,

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so interesting, and I think this is probably a bit of a less popular book, and I feel like this is probably a book you've never been suggested to read before,

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but I highly, highly, highly recommend you do, because I feel like there's just so many learning lessons that you can take from it.

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Onassis reminds me a lot, actually, of Felix Tennis, the first book I recommended.

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I love both of these books because they're just brilliantly flawed like you can tell

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that they're incredible individuals but also with some very you know some sides

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that are holding them back or some vices and it's great

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because both books are from beginning to end of their life

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so you kind of see the whole arc you know where things went well

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and where things definitely did not go well so yeah highly highly recommend this book.

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All right moving on to the next book Psycho-Cybernetics.

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Now I would say this is pretty much the nucleus,

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the most modern self-help books or anything when it comes to do with identity or anything to do with success,

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quite frankly, because your success is directly related to your self-image, your sense of self-worth.

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I don't believe in life you get what you deserve.

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I think you get what you think you deserve

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because what you think you deserve will dictate your actions

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and then your actions paired with luck or God's grace

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or whatever you want to refer to it as that leads to your results.

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And I think there's a lot, a lot of people that deserve a lot in life, but unfortunately, they don't think that they deserve a lot of life.

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And because they don't think they deserve a lot in life, that is what they attract, whether you want to approach it from a spiritual perspective

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or whether you want to approach it from like a actual nitty gritty.

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Hey, if you don't think you deserve something, well, then just your micro expressions, your micro actions, or even if everything's going well in your life, if you don't think you deserve something, well, you're just going to f* up.

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And I'm sure we all have those people in our lives

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where it seems like you could just hand something to them on a platter, but they'll still find a way to mess it up.

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It's because they just don't think that they're deserving of it.

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It's a very interesting book because he was actually a plastic surgeon.

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And what he found is, you know, sometimes people will get plastic surgery and then their sense of self-worth would change from it.

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Like genuinely, like the physical change in their life actually led to a different way that they view themselves.

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But more times than not, they would have, you know, they'd get their plastic surgery, but they still would feel the same.

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And that's because, yeah, sure, maybe they changed their external, but that had no bearing.

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and that didn't do anything for their internal sense of self-worth.

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So, you know, that's a very interesting position to be in where you can see like day-to-day people have this idea of themselves

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or they have this, you know, low self-esteem.

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And it's like, okay, cool.

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Well, if we fix the problem that we think is causing the low self-esteem, okay, maybe you think that your nose is too big

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or maybe you think that one ear is more crooked than the other or maybe you think that you've got X, Y, Z, this.

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Okay, let's fix it.

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Okay, once we fix it, what happens?

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Nothing.

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I think that's not an external issue.

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Clearly, that's your own sense of self-worth.

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You know, and I've just seen it time and time again, even at our business consulting dot com.

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We work with big enterprise businesses in our space, and we also work with people who are in the earlier stages of their career.

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And it's very interesting because I find that there's literally no difference between these two sides of the market, which is the people at the top of their game and the people in the earlier stages.

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I actually find a lot of time they're both equally as competent.

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I find that a lot of times they both know what to do.

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It's just a sense of self-worth from the people earlier on in their career.

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You know, the self-sabotage that they bring upon themselves is the only differentiating factor between the people

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that aren't able to launch pad their career and aren't able to move forward in life and the people that are.

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So I genuinely believe that if I had one competitive advantage in life, it's that I started reading books like this when I was 14 years old.

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So when the time presented itself and I was able to build my first business, like the first proper one, not like the odd side hustles I've been doing up until that point,

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but the real first business where I hired my first employee.

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So I've hired officially hired my first videographer.

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He is coming in from America in two weeks.

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I hired him full time, so basically just to help with the workload.

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I think I just had done so much of the internal work that, you know, it was a drag.

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It was tough, like, especially back then when I started 10 years ago, there wasn't the information that there is today.

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But I didn't have the same negative self-talk that I see a lot of people go through these days.

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So, you know, if you ever wonder what are some of the influences of the books that brought me to this point, this is definitely one of the top ones.

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Now, moving on, this is the, I don't want to say, maybe the big brother or the grandfather of, you know, psycho cybernetics.

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Now, actually, this was published at a later date.

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But my point is, this is a lot to read

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and it's a lot to digest and it's a lot to take in.

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So psycho cybernetics for me is a little bit more digestible and it's more tactical.

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This is like very metaphysical.

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So reality, train surfing is, once again, for me, it's one of the best ways to understand

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what happens in life and build mental models around it and also not get drawn into certain emotions.

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For example, you know, the book talks a lot about pendulums in your life.

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And I think that a lot of people go through life

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and they have stuff happen to them and they assign meaning

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or associations or emotions to things and they simply can't step outside of themselves.

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They can't look at their life from a third person perspective unemotionally.

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And I think if you feel like you need that in your life, this is probably the best book that you can read.

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Now, my best recommendation is start off with this.

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Okay.

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That's why I wanted to mention this book first

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and then move on to reality Transurfing after this book is a heavy read.

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It's probably a book you're going to have to come back and read multiple times in your life.

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And funny enough, one of the coolest things about books actually is you can read them in different seasons

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and different chapters of your life.

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And each time you read, you come back to it, it has a totally different meaning or definition.

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It's like reading the book again.

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And I think a lot of that is even your reticular activation system, so like your selective focus.

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When I was reading this book right at the beginning of my career, there's certain parts and there's certain chapters of the book that like, you know, I remember so vividly.

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And then when I read the book five years later, when, you know, I done okay for myself in life, then I found that those parts were less impactful.

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And maybe there was another chapter that I kind of overlooked or I didn't skim through, but I, yeah, I was just kind of in autopilot because it just didn't apply to me in my life.

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So one thing I want to mention is all the books here are books

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that are a certain length and should be a certain length.

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And what I mean by that is I'm not going to name specifics because, you know, I know a lot of these authors as well, and they're great people.

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And the game is just the game in the publishing world.

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You're going to have a book that could be 10 or 20 or 30 pages long, and you have to draw it out for 300 pages.

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And, you know, that's just the name of the game with your publisher.

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So, of course, I won't get into specific examples, but 99% of books is in any sort of knowledge-based book, self-development book, a business book,

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like genuinely they could have just said it in 10

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or 20 or 30 pages and then the rest of it just filler

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but all of the books that I'm mentioning here today are not that, they are not fillers, they are end-to-end books and they are books

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that you can come back to again and again in your life

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and they genuinely will have different meaning and I think that's no more true than a Reality Transurfing specifically.

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Now moving on to the final We have What Now by my best friend Alexander Moldovanos.

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And, yeah, what can I say about this book?

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I told you I love brilliantly flawed characters and I like people

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that are no bullsh and will tell you how it is.

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And, of course, I have been very involved in the making of this book.

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I've seen this book come to life over the space of the last couple of years, not only from the contents of this book, but also, I guess, as the publisher of this book.

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But I hope that you trust me when I say that I am not biased in any sort of way.

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Truly, this fits in line with Onassis' biography or Felix Dennis' book, and it fits in line with this idea for me that,

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like, I just like seeing a real insight into someone's life.

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I don't just want to know the good things.

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I want to know the good, the bad, the ugly.

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I wanted to know what were the things that you dreamed for in life that when you got it, it was not at all what you expected.

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I want to know what are the things in life

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that maybe you overlooked and then you got to a moment of reflection where you're like,

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wow, I took that for granted or I didn't realize that this is truly what life is about.

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And also, I like books that are written by people that I guess respectfully have actually lived it.

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And what I mean by that is it just holds a different weight with Onassis

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or Felix Dennis or Alexander's book when I know that someone's like actually lived it and they're speaking from real experience.

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And I get it.

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There's a lot of opinions from people of, oh, but if I was in that position, I would do this.

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Or if I was in that position, then I wouldn't think like this.

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Or if I was in that position, X, Y, Z.

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And it's like just respectfully, you haven't been there and you haven't lived and you haven't experienced it.

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And that's why I just love people who have experienced all the life has to offer and more the good, the bad, the ugly and just speak with no filter,

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no bullshit, no. Oh, my publisher wants me to say this and just share the lessons.

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And I think that is what this book is about, is just sharing the lessons that the author has collected over three or four years,

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living the craziest life possible.

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Of course, the visuals in this book are better than any other book in the world.

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You know, there's some very interesting moments in here.

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Of course, moments of luxury, moments of pain, moments of reflection, moments of confusion.

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And that's shown not only through the pictures, but also the words.

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One thing that, you know, initially this book was meant to start off as just a visual.

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And Alex and I had long conversations and I just said, you know, I think it's important that people know what's going on in your head

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because you have such an insight into a world that we're very blessed to live in.

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I think we're very blessed to have experienced so much in life.

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And, you know, as the title says, all the glitters is in gold.

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Sometimes it's not always what it seems to be.

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And I cannot speak more highly of this book because it fits with the theme, as I said, of the Onassis and the Felix Dennis book, except that is at the end of someone's life.

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what's super cool is

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that this is a snapshot into four years of someone who came from nothing

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and then came from nothing to having everything

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and having the whole world at their fingertips in the space of three

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or four years but is still living through that

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and it's exciting to know

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that there's you know this isn't the end of the chapter you know

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when you finish those books you're like okay that was a start

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and an end and I know everything that I could know whereas this it's it's what we all want.

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This is a real human experience of someone getting exactly what they want in life, dreaming for something and getting it, and the good, the bad, and the ugly that comes with it.

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And for me, it's very exciting knowing that it's not the end of the road.

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And you know, you just don't know what's going to come up next in the book.

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Because once again, going back to the Onassis and the Felix Dennis example, I would have been so interested to have had 10 books for every three years

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or four years in their life or every five years.

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Like I would have loved to have like had an insight into their mind, like what was going on in that decade?

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Like where was your head at?

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Where was your heart at where was your soul at

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and it's cool that you get a little peek into

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that with this book so there we have it those are seven books

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that changed my life and I have pretty high conviction

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that they could change yours as well

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if you take the time to read them to take it

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in to mull over to reflect on some of the writings

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within them as I said truly books absolutely changed my life

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and I really don't want to know

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or think about where my life would have ended

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if I I wasn't such an avid reader in the earlier stages of my career.

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And I'd like to give some of you guys that gift.

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So what I've gone ahead and done in the pinned comments or the description, there are going to be 50 codes.

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These are all $100 gift card codes.

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This is an online bookstore.

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So wherever you are in the world, you can go ahead and redeem it.

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I wanted to leave it right here for the end of the video.

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For those of you guys who made it to the end, please go ahead and use one of those $100 gift cards.

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Hopefully that's helpful to some of you.

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And also, please make sure you support your local bookstores.

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I absolutely love bookstores, especially, you know, the people who keep them alive because, you know, I'm sure as you understand,

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they're not particularly the most profitable or lucrative ventures.

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So the owners have so much labor of love that they put into it.

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If you're ever in London, I implore you, please try to take a day trip and make it out to Brooks and Bookmongers.

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This is, as I said, genuinely from all my heart, my favorite bookstore in the world.

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I have so many memories from here and truly one of those places

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that shapes and defines where you go for the rest of your life.

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With all that being said, I'm going to get back to my tea.

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As always, I'm watching from afar.

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I'm rooting for you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “7 Books I Wish I Had Read Earlier”. This video has 335 sentences and 4856 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:58. The speaker talks fast, about 221 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
genuinely adverb	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/	In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly.
bookstore noun	/ˈbʊkstɔː/	A store where books are bought and sold.
brilliantly adverb		In a brilliant manner; with brilliance.
flawed adjective	/flɔːd/	Having a flaw or imperfection.
biography noun	/baɪˈɑɡɹəfi/	A person's life story, especially one published.
emotion noun	/ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/	A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
cybernetics noun	/ˌsaɪ.bə(ɹ)ˈnɛ.tɪks/	The theory/science of communication and control in living organisms or machines.
masculinity noun	/ˌmæskjəˈlɪnɪti/	The degree or property of being masculine or manly; manliness.
masculine adjective	/ˈmæskjələn/	Of or pertaining to the male gender.
publisher noun	/ˈpʌblɪʃɚ/	A person or (especially) a company who publishes, especially books.
reflection noun	/ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/	The act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.
insight noun	/ˈɪnsaɪ̯t/	A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; frequently used with into.
fascinate verb	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone.
filler noun	/ˈfɪlɚ/	One who fills.
hardcover noun	/ˈhɑːdˌkʌvə/	A book with a rigid binding, often of cardboard or leather.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pick up verb		To lift; to grasp and raise.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
come back verb		To return to a place.
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

You know, you're still in your career.
I think that's not an external issue.
Clearly, that's your own sense of self-worth.
I don't just want to know the good things.
You know, there's some very interesting moments in here.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to spend · used to come
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have been · I've read · they've written
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being said · was written · is said
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who fell · those who may · people who are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 95 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I've, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, publisher /ˈpʌblɪʃɚ/, reflection /ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/, temptation /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/, snapshot /ˈsnæpʃɒt/
Long words — get the stress right: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, biography /baɪˈɑɡɹəfi/, cybernetics /ˌsaɪ.bə(ɹ)ˈnɛ.tɪks/, masculinity /ˌmæskjəˈlɪnɪti/, respectfully /ɹɪˈspɛkt.fə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like genuinely, bookstore, brilliantly.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 7 Books I Wish I Had Read Earlier - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?