Mark Zuckerberg Launches Facebook Book Group

Mark Zuckerberg

The first week of January defines high tide for new year resolutions. My local YMCA, for example, experiences an attendance spike during this temporary wave of virtue. Others wish to improve their own and others' minds. A case in point is Facebook's major shareholder and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg. He recently launched on Facebook a de facto book club which proposes to focus on serious titles addressing important topics.

Zuckerberg's resolution, under the title "A Year of Books," asserts that he will read one book every two weeks. He also intends to become engaged via Facebook in a useful community discussion of each book's principal points. It will be very interesting to observe this laudable project's progress in the coming months.

It's easy and fair to criticize Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook's ruthless data strip mining techniques and hypocritical privacy perspective. However, his attempt to create a community intended to stimulate intellectual engagement stands above the wave of smug corporate promises for a "successful" new year. Zuckerberg deserves credit for promoting thoughtful, extended reading. Alas, "A Year of Books" does have something of a tidal feeling. What happens to the community of readers when the "Year of Books" ends on January 1, 2016?