Mark Zuckerberg Starts World's Biggest Book Club
Posted on January 3, 2015
Mark Zuckerberg just founded a book club. Today he posted to his Facebook page his intention to read a new book every other week during 2015. He says he will focus on books that help him learn about different cultures, their beliefs, histories and their technologies.
Zuckerberg says he got 50,000 responses to his question about upcoming challenges. He said many people suggested a reading challenge, and he's chosen that path for the upcoming year.
Zuckerberg has created a page called A Year of Books where he'll post about the books he's reading. He's asked people to chime in to the discussion, but only if they've read the book being discussed. Anticipating trolling, he wisely has chosen to moderate the discussion.
The first book for the new club is The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moises Naim. The book examines how the world is changing to give individuals power that has traditionally been held by governments, the military and large corporations. Zuckerberg writes, "The trend towards giving people more power is one I believe in deeply, and I'm looking forward to reading this book and exploring this in more detail."
The book was originally published in hardcover in March, 2013, by Basic Books. It is available in paperback format and in ebook format. It appears to be selling well on Amazon.com, although it's too early to tell if his book club will reach Oprah levels of book clubdom.
So why is he doing this? Doesn't he have a giant company to run? Zuckerberg has been doing challenges each year. This year's challenge just happens to be a book club. He talks about his love of books saying, "I'm excited for my reading challenge. I've found reading books very intellectually fulfilling. Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I'm looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books."
You can check out A Year of Books here. At this writing it has 62,428 likes and is generating quite a bit of excitement. The initial comments are mostly logistical, with those outside the U.S. asking for advance notice of the books so they have time to order them and others wanting to know where they can buy the book.
It's a bit unclear when the discussions of the book begin and end, and when those conversations close so everyone can get on to the next book. A book every other week is pretty ambitious, and we're not sure if you get one week to read the book and one to discuss it or how exactly that works. But we think it's a fantastic idea with the potential to create the world's biggest ongoing discussion about books, and there is plenty of time to work out the details.
We feel sure that the publishers would love a bit of advance notice to ensure they have enough copies on hand. And we do hope he has some discussions with the authors of the books he selects. We know they would jump at the chance to participate.