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The 41 Books Mark Zuckerberg Has Recommended on Facebook (mostrecommendedbooks.com) 63

Last week Slashdot featured "the 61 books Elon Musk has recommended on Twitter," as compiled by a slick web site (with Amazon referrer codes) called "Most Recommended Books." But the same site has also created a page of books recommended by Mark Zuckerbeg.

Zuckerberg's list includes books by Peter Thiel (Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future), Richard P. Feynman ("Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!") and Jay-Z's memoir Decoded.

Zuckerberg also says he liked Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game as well as Ender's Shadow, the author's "parallel" retelling of the same story from a different point of view.

But Zuckerberg also recommends the 1995 book Orwell's Revenge, an alternate version of 1984 in which new communications technologies create a positive future with new choices and sources of information.

And despite Facebook's reported role in the spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, Zuckerberg himself recommends the book On Immunity, which he says "Explores the reasons why some people question vaccines, and then logically explains why the doubts are unfounded and vaccines are in fact effective and safe."
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The 41 Books Mark Zuckerberg Has Recommended on Facebook

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  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
    the movie is not bad either, but the book is better
    • Hmm... Now I'll have to consider that one, since it turns out I've never read it? Heard quite a bit about the story anyway. I've been reading a lot of old books lately, with a mix of old classics, old bestsellers, and a few oddballs.

      It would be quite difficult for me to pick any one book as the best to recommend. I've read a lot of good ones, but my assessment of how good changes over time. Godel, Escher, Bach keeps coming to mind, however. Looking over this year's books, Sapiens caught my eye, but mayb

      • John Steinbeck is a very good writer, and more mentally stable than Hemingway.
        • mark zuckerburg recommending books.
          i can not help but wonder if mark zuckerbury read all of those books he recommended.
          i can not help but wonder if those books mark zuckerburg recommended are about ethics
          • If you had read the list you would have the answers to your wonders. However Zuck's motivation for reading the books is interesting to compare with his fellow Libertarian Taleb's motivations. Or maybe I should describe it as different combinations of means, motive, and opportunity?

            In Taleb's case, his scam itself creates the opportune times to read a lot of books because he has to wait for his bets to pay off. The amusing self-contradiction is that I'm sure he didn't put his own Skin in the Game during th

            • Zuck's money came to him too easily for him to develop a strong ideology, I guess.
              • mark is mark.
                but fucking with america.
                i do not have to like it
                • by shanen ( 462549 )

                  Hmm... That's an interesting perspective, and it might be valid. I actually consider it possible that he might be a benign and high-performing psychopath, and in that case personal philosophy may well be outside the scope of what he regards as relevant. My more optimistic hope would be that he's merely immature and the ethical books on his list are evidence of his sincere intention to learn more, not a psychopathic intention to make us think he wants to be a nicer person. However I do believe he's at least

              • by shanen ( 462549 )

                Whoops. Meant to reply directly to you, but it's one comment down.

            • Also, while Musk's list left no doubt about his own Libertarianism

              Huh? Of all the books on Musk's list, [goodbooks.io] there's only one that is Libertarian, "Atlas Shrugged", and one that might be considered Libertarian, "Zero to One". Thing is, "Das Kapital" is also on his list. Does that make him a Marxist?

              Musk is almost universally hated by Libertarians because of his supposed reliance on government largesse. Not only has Musk denied being a Libertarian, he's denied being a conservative as well. And he proved it by endorsing Andrew Yang's presidential bid - and Yang is about a

  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:23AM (#60503872)

    Why would you care what an ethically bankrupt jackass reads? Honestly, the only way this could be of interest is if you were trying to analyze the defects of his character.

    • by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @05:14AM (#60503970)
      Fuck Zuck.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      I don't... furthermore I doubt this is his list. I believed it was Elon Musk's list because he often times genuinely doesn't give a fuck how things come across (his Twitter feed is a good example).

      It's more likely that a PR minion drew it up with instructions on what image of Zuckerberg to portray.

    • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @05:25AM (#60503984) Journal
      It's not even about his ethics or personality. I care equally little about what books Obama reads, or Oprah. Those are recommendations that carry weight only because these people are celebrities, and we are somewhat curious about them and what motivates them.
    • Orwell's Revenge, an alternate version of 1984 in which new communications technologies create a positive future with new choices and sources of information.

      yup. We've done that.

      I think the reasons we care is because this defective character holds a lot of power concernign the information so many receive. If he changes the algorithms for facebook to only show pro-democrat campaign material (as a crude example) then its going to have some effect. One that would probably end up looking like the original 1984.

    • the only way this could be of interest is if you were trying to analyze the defects of his character

      I doubt it is useful for that, unless the defect being analyzed was his tendency toward manipulating others to serve his interests.

      It is about 0% possible that any of his book recommendations were offered up by him in some organic fashion, out of a genuine desire to share some knowledge of experience he found valuable with the rest of the world. It is overwhelmingly more likely that all of them were the result of some effort by Public Relations professionals to present a specific image of who Zuckerberg i

    • Agreed!
    • I do find it interesting for that very reason. Him recommending Orwell's Revenge is particularly telling.

  • by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:38AM (#60503888) Homepage
    What people really want to know is: what is the President reading? Does it have pages to colour in by number? Dot-to-dot pictures to draw? I reckon The Very Hungry Caterpillar would really get him wound up before a meal. But would he read it over several sittings or all at once?
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      No, the dumbest people on earth are the ones who believe anything Trump says. About anything.

      • Like when he said the generals in the military want to start wars to funnel money to defense contractors? Whoo boy what a load of malarkey, right?

        • Are you joking or a Trumpist? If it's a joke, then it needs work, but it smells like a suspicious diversion in an unrelated thread. Or maybe more evidence of low-digit hijacking?

          Of course it depends on the general. The earn-retirement-and-out boys are sometimes like that, but even a broken clock gets to be right more often than Trump. The lifers who couldn't stand working for Trump? Not so much.

          I could requote the original against the censorship mods, but now I'm supposing that I was trolled and deserve the

    • "what is the President reading?"

      It's well-known that he doesn't read. At all. His aides can't even get him to read his briefing papers.

      • by thomst ( 1640045 )

        To the question, "what is the President reading," Chris Mattern snorted:

        It's well-known that he doesn't read. At all. His aides can't even get him to read his briefing papers.

        Not being willing to read briefing papers does not equate to Trump being illiterate. He's not.

        Multiple insiders have disclosed that he reads the Wall Street Journal's coverage of real estate - with a particular eye to stories about himself, his properties, and his company - plus The New York Post (both of which are owned by his longtime friend and political mentor Rupert Murdoch), and stories specifically about him in the NYT. (Apparent

        • "Not being willing to read briefing papers does not equate to Trump being illiterate. He's not."

          I never said he was. I said he doesn't read, not that he can't read. He's aliterate, not illiterate.

    • by 1s44c ( 552956 )

      I think his reading preferences are for bright colors and chewable pages.

  • by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @04:11AM (#60503924)
    George Orwell, a Marxist, saw the unholy child that nationalism and fascism bore, and its enslavement of manufacturing and technology. Peter Huber, author of Orwell's Revenge, seems to argues the antidote is, although he doesn't label it so, pure capitalism.

    https://www.blinkist.com/magaz... [blinkist.com]

  • by DrTJ ( 4014489 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @04:17AM (#60503930)

    I somehow doubt that either of them actually have read all these books. At least not completely.

    Elon might be interested to do so, if he had the time, but running a bunch of high-profile companies and start-ups (to the level where is sleeping on factory floor, as rumoured), I doubt that he can prioritize the activity of reading books very frequently, as each might require many hours. It might be hard to justify the (percieved) alternative cost in a world time optimized down to minutes.

    What I can believe is that Elon browses a book and discusses it with someone who has read it to build an opinion, during e.g. transportation.

    As for Mr. Zuckerberg, and don't think he has the time, nor the interest to do so.

    • It might be hard to justify the (percieved) alternative cost in a world time optimized down to minutes.

      That's the sad part of running a company, it tends to take up all your time, whether it's about perceived cost, or hard priorities making demands on your time. And I'm not talking middle managers who gobble up self-help management books like "7 habits", "The art of war and business" and other such useless crap, but (proudly and loudly) proclaim they "don't have time for fiction". I'm talking about wanting to spend and evening with your family, and having to go through your secretary in order to make time

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thomst ( 1640045 )

      DrTJ opined:

      I somehow doubt that either of them actually have read all these books. At least not completely.

      Elon might be interested to do so, if he had the time, but running a bunch of high-profile companies and start-ups (to the level where is sleeping on factory floor, as rumoured), I doubt that he can prioritize the activity of reading books very frequently, as each might require many hours.

      Yeah, I'm sure he works nonstop, 27 hours a day, 8 days a week, 64 weeks a year.

      Nobody who's successful works all the time. Peope who work in high-stress jobs especially need time off to recover and recharge. Elon slept at the giga-factory while it was mired in what he called "production hell." That was years ago. And a lot of those books were in print when he was a high school and freshman college student, which is when most intelligent people who aren't still fourteen years old read the books

      • were in print when he was a high school and freshman college student, which is when most intelligent people who aren't still fourteen years old read the books that influence their personal philosophy and direction in life from then onward.

        What's wrong with you? You still believe the shit you thought when you were 14? Take some time, read and reflect man.

        I know my beliefs have shifted since then.

  • On Immunity (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Monday September 14, 2020 @04:46AM (#60503952)

    Zuckerberg himself recommends the book On Immunity

    He originally picked it up hoping to find hints on how to avoid being held legally responsible for anything, but it turned out to be another subject matter altogether. But he kept on reading.

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Can you cite any behavioral evidence that he actually read (or understood) the book? Or perhaps the book was even cited explicitly in relation to some of the anti-vaxxer suppression on Facebook? (Yeah, I know "suppression" is a bad word in this context, but I do see their viewpoint as a mental disease and I don't how else to describe it. (And yet I also see Libertarianism as another kind of mental disease. (Maybe the real problem is that all of us are nuts and the DSM is too small to cover all the mental di

    • He never read the book. The book suggests ways to use social media to fight anti-vaxxers. He recommended it because the anti-vaxxers were dominating the social media war (somehow, despite, you know, science) and recommended it so that people who weren't in a death cult would fight them - on Facebook. Gotta drive those engagement numbers up somehow. Echo chambers are good for business, but a holy war is great for business.

  • Why would anyone be interested in recommendations from a control freak?
    He carries at least a few disorders, did you even watch some video of depositions?
    If censorship is his businessmodel he should be forgotten as soon as possible.
  • I have a book recommendation for slashdot editors. It's called "How to lose all the subscribers you have left in 14 days" By I.M. Retarded.
  • Zuckerberg also recommends the 1995 book Orwell's Revenge, an alternate version of 1984 in which new communications technologies create a positive future with new choices and sources of information.

    Oh, the irony....

  • You wants the short but memorable relations. We will have fun this night! I'm waiting >> http://gg.gg/m5arl [gg.gg]

"The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of course you never do." -- Gregory Bateson

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