Mark Zuckerberg Starts A Book Club As His New Year's Resolution

Aside from creating the world’s largest social network, Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg is known for his ambitious New Year’s resolutions. In the past few years, he learned how to speak Mandarin, met a new person that does not work at Facebook every day, wrote a thank you note every day, became vegetarian (except for animals that he killed himself) and wore a tie every day. At the last Facebook town hall Q&A, someone asked Zuckerberg what his challenge will be for 2015. 

This year, Mark Zuckerberg decided to crowdsource ideas for his New Year’s resolution . Cynthia Greco, the Audience Development Manager for MediaOnePA/York Newspaper Company, suggested that Zuckerberg reads a new book every month chosen by someone else. Zuckerberg said he liked the idea, but decided to read a new book every other week with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs and histories. “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,” said Zuckerberg. 

Zuckerberg also created a Facebook Page called “A Year Of Books” so that you can follow his challenge and read the same books as him. He asked users to participate in the discussions if you have actually read the books. Over 163,000 Facebook users have "liked" the "A Year Of Books" Page already.

Zuckerberg decided that the first book of the year is The End Of Power by Moisés Naím. The End Of Power is about how the world has shifted by giving more power to individuals, which used to be held by government agencies and the military. The paperback edition of The End Of Power temporarily ran out of stock on Amazon.com after Zuckerberg’s announcement. It is now in the top 20 of Amazon’s Best Sellers in the book product category.

Several Facebook users asked Zuckerberg if he would consider additional philanthropic initiatives as a New Year’s resolution. “Many of you suggested I give money to help people in need -- and Priscilla [Chan] and I fully intend to keep doing that through our philanthropic work,” added Zuckerberg. In September 2010, Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan donated $100 million to Newark Public Schools. They signed “The Giving Pledge” a few months later, which is a promise to donate at least half of their wealth to charity. In December 2013, Zuckerberg donated 18 million Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation at a value of almost $1 billion. During the ebola scare of October 2014, Zuckerberg and Chan donated $25 million to fight the epidemic in West Africa.

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