Another New Year’s Day has come and gone, and we’re now firmly mired in the January blahs. If you’re anything like me, your vague, lofty pledges to “eat healthier” and “take the stairs more” have fallen by the wayside already (I keep finding myself on the elevator, eating a dozen donuts). But fear not—it isn’t too late to choose a more specific (and enriching!) goal when it comes to this year’s self-betterment crusade, such as pledging to read more. Fortunately, if you go that route, you’ll have plenty of company: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has decided to read a new book every two weeks in 2015, and he’s invited everyone on Facebook to join him.
Now, for the more ambitious speed readers among us, a book every two weeks may not seem like such a difficult endeavor, but for those who struggle to find time to read every day, and occasionally get bogged down reading a single book for weeks or months on end, such a commitment is a nice kick in the pants down the rewarding road to reading more books.
So, how will this work? The premise is fairly straightforward: A new book will be chosen every two weeks, to be read and discussed on a community Facebook page Zuckerberg has created called “A Year of Books” (to date, the page has nearly a quarter of a million likes). Anyone is welcome to suggest a new book to read, although the books will “emphasize learning about new cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies,” so I’m imagining that it’ll be more Guns, Germs, and Steel and less Gone Girl. On January 2 it was announced that the first book would be The End of Power, by Moisés Naím (who is doing a live Q&A on the page this afternoon!). Facebook users were encouraged in a post to begin discussing the book, with the request that they stay on topic.
There’s something exciting about the idea of reading a book that thousands of other people are all reading at the same time. What a thrilling event to take part in! There will be so many brains to bounce your ideas and opinions off of; so many different points of view will be heard from all over the globe! Whenever I’m in the middle of a great read, I always wish I could grab a stranger on the bus by the collar and talk to him about it—and being part of a massive book club on Facebook just might be the closest thing I’ve got.
