Katt Williams on His Favorite Books and New Memoir

Comedian Katt Williams is releasing a candid memoir titled Nine Lives, No Wives, and 69 Concubines in October 2026, which accompanies a five-city tour. In a recent New York Times Book Review interview, he reflects on his unconventional upbringing in a strict Jehovah's Witness household in Dayton, Ohio, where he claims extensive reading served as his original survival tactic. Williams organizes his home library by subject rather than aesthetics, incorporating diverse influences from The Swiss Family Robinson and Anne Frank's diary to the Torah and gardening manuals. While critics frequently debate the veracity of his statistics—such as reading three thousand books annually as a child—he maintains that these literary foundations directly shaped his distinctive comedic style and self-made career.

"Open a book. Discover a world."

This episode includes AI-generated content.