Oprah will now have some competition on the book circuit, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is starting a book club of his own.
Zuckerberg asked users of Facebook for help with his New Year's resolution and based off of those suggestions he has vowed to read a book every two weeks, and has invited people around the world to join him in his mission. Some of the suggestions he decided not use including running one mile every day without taking a day off, and even deleting users who send game requests.
Declaring 2015 as the "year of books," Zuckerberg has added yet another unique resolution to his list. Two years ago he challenged himself to meet a new person a day. Last year he set a goal of writing a thank you note to someone every single day.
"I'm excited for my reading challenge. I've found reading books very intellectually fulfilling," Zuckerberg said in a recent post. "Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today."
Zuckerberg has already created a new Facebook page entitled "A year of books" to serve as the reading group's central hub and stated, "I'm looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books." In the initial 24 hours of its existence the page gained over 62,000 followers.
"Please only participate in the discussions if you've actually read the books and have relevant points to add. The group will be moderated to keep it focused," he stressed in his status update.
Zuckerberg plans to select books about various topics and cultures. He has already received hundreds of suggestions for books for his new club. The Bible and Quran have proven to be two of the most popular suggestions.
The first book Zuckerberg is tackling is "The End of Power" by Moisés Naím, a former Foreign Policy editor. It is a 300-page dive into the changing nature of leadership today, that was published in March 2013. According to its description on Amazon, it 'illuminates the struggle between once-dominant megaplayers and the new micropowers challenging them in every field of human endeavor.'
Amazon.com already has the paperback version listed as "temporarily out of stock" suggesting that Zuckerberg's new book club could have the kind of market effects that Oprah's book club once enjoyed. Oprah Winfrey remains the gold standard for choosing books, although other clubs have been started by 'Good Morning America' and the 'Today' show, among others.
