Say what you want about Facebook, it’s still a social media platform used by millions of people. When Mark Zuckerberg, its founder, decided to create a book club on the site as part of his New Year’s Resolution, I was excited. Why? Two things:
1) The goal of the book club:
We will read a new book every two weeks and discuss it here. Our books will emphasize learning about new cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies. Suggestions for new books to read are always welcome. We ask that everyone who participates read the books and we will moderate the discussions and group membership to keep us on topic.
I love that the goal here is to learn new things through books. Yes, technically speaking, books teach us new things all the time but this pushes people to try books they normally wouldn’t. Books that will be outside of their worldview and preferences which is a major plus.
2) Getting People Reading
Like I said, Facebook has millions of users with 4582 so far participating in the book club via page likes. This is all about getting people into reading, which is never a bad thing. I’m going to try and participate as part of my New Year’s Resolutions which is to expand my reading choices even more.
The page asks for suggestions and I’m glad that there are some fiction choices being thrown in there as well as non-fiction. The first book is The End of Power, by Moisés Naím, which sounds like a really interesting read.
And since we’re on the topic of power, I suggest checking out Michel Foucault’s writings on power too.