Mark Zuckerberg Pulls an Oprah, Launches Facebook Book Club

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided on his challenge for the new year, and it involves books. A lot of them.

For the past few years, Zuckerberg has made a point to publicly challenge himself to try something new. One year it was speaking Mandarin (which he did) – another year it was wearing a tie every day. One time, Zuckerberg tried to live a mostly vegetarian life – only eating animals that he had killed himself.

This year, Zuckerberg enlisted the Facebook community to help him figure out what to do. Now, after many suggestions, he’s made his decision. This year, Zuckerberg is going to read around 26 books – and he’s launched a new Facebook page to track his progress, as well as provide an hub for discussion. Zuck’s gone Oprah and launched his own book club.

“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,” says Zuckerberg.

The “book club” page is called A Year of Books, and it already boasts 137,000+ likes. If you’re thinking about participating in the book discussion, make sure you’ve actually read the book in question.

“If you want to follow along on my challenge and read the same books I do, I’ve created a page, A Year of Books, where I’ll post what I’m reading. 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 says.

Up first is a 2013 book called The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used To Beby Moises Naim. Let’s see if Zuck can keep his resolution.