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Mark Zuckerberg Starts a Book Club, Gains 81 Thousand Members in Two Days

facebookThe founder of Facebook has set a goal of reading a new book every other week, and he’s inviting his 31 million plus Facebook followers to join him.

On Friday Mark Zuckerberg posted this message to his FB feed, inviting everyone to like a new page (natch) on Facebook called A Year of Books.

My challenge for 2015 is to read a new book every other week — with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies.

Our first book of the year will be The End of Power by Moisés Naím. It’s a book that explores how the world is shifting to give individual people more power that was traditionally only held by large governments, militaries and other organizations.

81 thousand FB members have already liked the page (around a thousand clicked the button while I was writing this post) and they’ve already started discussing the book – and they’ve been buying it in droves.

The book in question is out of stock at Amazon, and although it can be had from third party sellers the prices have been creeping up as I wrote this post. B&N still has it in stock, although at a higher price.

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This wasn’t a terribly popular before it was picked by Zuckerberg; I can see only a single review at B&N, and 54 reviews at Amazon. Something tells me that is going to change.

There’s already talk on Twitter that Zuckerberg could be the first person since Oprah to single-handedly turn an obscure title into a bestseller, but I think it’s too early to say. Expert estimate that the 69 books promoted by the talk show host in her book club collectively sold around 55 million copies.

Facebook may be popular and Zuckerberg may have 31 million followers, but I don’t think he has the same kind of impact as Oprah, who was shaping topics of discussion long before she started talking about books.

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image by _Max-B

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Comments


Greg Strandberg January 4, 2015 um 1:07 pm

Any wagers on if he makes it through the year? How about the 1st quarter?

Nate Hoffelder January 4, 2015 um 2:06 pm

The guy learned Chinese. I’d say he has the follow through to stick with a book club. (I don’t know about time, though.)


Jesslyn H January 5, 2015 um 4:27 pm

And how many years has Goodreads had this challenge? Hmmmm….I’ve been setting annual book goals since 2011, but the site had already been doing it forever. Recently, goals of 110 (114) in 2013 and 120 (128) in 2014 completed.

Nate Hoffelder January 5, 2015 um 7:05 pm

Pretty much forever, and you’re right that I should have thought to mention them.


Maria (BearMountainBooks) January 5, 2015 um 8:06 pm

I think he’ll have an impact. He gets in the news, gets attention and people love to be in the "in" crowd. He’s a different generation and going about it his way, but he’ll do just fine with it.


Travis January 6, 2015 um 6:06 pm

How does he choose the books?

Nate Hoffelder January 6, 2015 um 6:55 pm

He didn’t say.


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