Where Zuckerberg reads, others follow…….

After a crowdsourcing excercise through Facebook,  the 30 year-old billionaire has chosen a new resolution this year for us all to read more books, calling it – “a year of books”.  Whilst most of us read books fairly  regularly year in and out, Zuckerburg has already made one book – “The End of Power” –  by Moises Naim a firm favourite with his followers, causing it to sell out on Amazon.

Naim addresses world power in the future and analyses it in 3 sections:- it is a little negative,  and who can say if Naim is right or wrong?  It is always good to ruminate on what we read.  Perhaps Naim or Zuckerberg will feature some reactions from readers on Facebook? I feel sure they will.

Section 1) The revolution of “more” – countries  according to Naim – “numbers” have more than doubled since World War II and world population enlarged by more than 4bn, encompassing more religions, more medicines, more companies and more charities.

Section 2) The revolution of mobility. Each day £2.5 trillion is traded across international borders and  1.35 bn people are on Facebook.  The internet has capitulated the captive audience – apparently taking it away from other sources of media.  This can be debated. People,  products and capital are more mobile than ever before – that is true, but many tune into favourite sources on a daily basis.

Section 3) Third revolution – “mentality” –   though political power is in the hands of the relative “few” – a new world order with less hierarchy demands new forms of democratic governance and people power – have we read/heard it all before? Does it have more meaning now than it had ten years ago?  You decide if you read the book.  Apparently 89 countries were ruled by autocrats in 1979 while only 20 are ruled this way today.

Naim advises that the diffusion and decay of power can result in both opportunity and chaos. Is this all a bit highbrow for the average reader who wants value for money?  Well if Mark Zuckerberg chose the book, and we all know his intelligence, dip in and see for yourself.

“The Arab spring represents a “changing face of power” – results both devastating and domocratising…….

Zuckerberg is focussing in his current project on “the end of power” – easy for Mark, less enabling for the majority of hard working intellectuals of quasi-intellectuals who might crave more profit from dipping into a book or two.  Mark – we raise our glasses to you – let us know about more books to network about on Facebook – what about a dark novel perhaps?  Well The Woman in Black – The Angel of Death is now showing at cinemas….know any dark books Mark? and  Have you read Stinging the Devil by Penny Nair Price…?  That’s dark, deep, enchanting… and available on Amazon…We recommend it…..Cheers.

The Saturn Herald.