Stop the Press, Zuckerberg is Reading books!

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Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year resolution is to read a book every two weeks as he has discovered that books are “ 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.”. You can join him on his new Facebook page reading ‘A year of Books’.  To extend his metaphor, if reading Facebook page post forms part of his ‘media diet’, this is the equivalent of a 27g pack of ready salted crisps in comparison with the veritable feast of reading a novel. His first recommended book is ‘The End of Power’ by Moises Naim  – unfortunaltely for me, there are many books on my list still to read, and this isn’t one of them, so he has lost me in the first hurdle. I couldn’t find a list on his Facebook page either – if he delays publishing his list, it will take everyone too long to get the book, and then find time to read it. In addition, I don’t think 2 weeks is a long enough period to give working people enough time to read, he clearly has plenty of time on his hands!

Nevertheless, I do appreciate the sentiment of encouraging reading, especially as I have spent my whole professional and personal life advocating how much reading can improve your life.  I hope that Zuckerman’s announcement is a genuine nod towards reading, and not a cynical ploy to channel the world into reading particular books. Such massive publicitly can make – or break an author. Remember ‘A Million Little Pieces’ where when the author James Frey couldn’t get his vomit filled novel published as fiction, then decided to tell the publishers it was  autobiographical? He achieved huge publicity through Oprah Winfrey –  “I was a bad guy,” Frey told Winfrey. “If I was gonna write a book that was true, and I was gonna write a book that was honest, then I was gonna have to write about myself in very, very negative ways.” When it reached a major peak of popularity through Oprah Winfrey he then had to face the humiliation of admitting that this was not the case, and that the events he claimed to be true in his novel were more firmly placed in a work of fiction. Not a major crime, but he was vilified for misleading his readers. It does change the reader’s perception of the novel, and people have a different perspective of a book when they think it is ‘real’. Who knows how he really feels about this – it has sold millions of copies, and most works have elements of dramatic license – but Frey did take it to new heights.

The Problem with Amazon reviews!

On a more positive note, such a high profile person advocating reading will offer a refreshing change to Amazon and their reviews. I am getting really irritated about the amount of times I look at a novel and they have 4 or 5 star reviews, they can’t all be that good!  My dismay reached a peak with the novel ‘The Husband’s Secret’ by Liane Moriarty, scarily, nearly 4,000 people gave this book 4 or 5 stars, misleading me into thinking it could quite possibly be good! I was so incensed that I actually sent in the following review to Amazon in July 2014:

Unfortunately, even one star is too many! Luckily I read this very quickly, and only wasted one day of my life. I have decided to write this to spare some other poor unsuspecting reader the same fate.

It promised a great deal, but started as a yawnsville of domesticity that we read books to escape from.

My biggest criticism of the writing style that instead of creating fully formed characters, Moriarty would add a little aside to show that Cecelia wasn’t ‘perfect’ after all. As a Tupperware selling queen who was not pretty enough for her handsome husband, as well as having only one out of three beautiful children – she clearly deserved to have the beautiful world she didn’t truly deserve totally destroyed.

As a non Catholic, I found the ending at best unsatisfactory, and at worst an example of literary immorality. Basically, we are all bad, so we’re even, let’s all live happily ever after and not tell the police. It will be fine, if we are good from now on, nothing bad will ever happen to us ever again, so we are all safe…

The epilogue was a travesty – the whole point of writing a this genre of novel is that you recreate another world that as a reader we can escape to. The nonsense at the end where it was – well if Cecilia had known this… and if .. (What was her dullard husband called again?) had known that blah de blah’s daughter had had this genetic disease…What was all that about? Had Moriarty reached her word count for the publisher and then couldn’t be bothered to write a proper ending?

Great idea, terrible execution – editor is at fault here too. If this is your only planned summer read, swap it for something else before you leave, there’s still time!

Interestingly, a few people added their comments – unbelievably, the first of the three responses is from a man who claimed to enjoy this utter nonsense – was he paid?

Response One:
Reading this review I wondered if we are talking about the same book…! I would suggest dismissing this review, or at least don’t let it stop you from reading this book, which in my view is one of the best I have read this year. An absorbing plot, real characters and beautifully written, I can only recommend in the highest possible way that you read it and judge for yourself.

Response Two:
I read this book but couldn’t be bothered to write a review. Totally agree and hope if anyone has taken this book to read on holiday that they have another as back up as it is boring.

 Response Three:
I would suggest taking this review very seriously, never have I read such amateurish, girly, gushing, writing without any depth to it at all. If you genuinely like this then I can only suggest you are missing out on some great writing out there, because great writing this is definitely NOT.
What is my point?  I don’t want to have such a narrow approach to literature and only read what I will think I will like, but then I think I don’t have enough time in my life to read badly written tosh! The good element of creating your own online Facebook page for your reading, is that you will hopefully end up reading books that have been genuinely recommended by others, who will also provide you with some accurate responses to the texts where you can take advantage of a more informed analysis, and you won’t be relying on the corporate juggernaut of Amazon for direction in what to read. (I know I should have know better….)
My advice

Start your own Facebook reading page – make the choice of texts more realistic, give people enough time to actually read the book – be prepared for lots of different opinions too. The idea Zuckerberg has created is a way of engaging a large audience without having to actually meet up. In schools you could have a 6th form page and channel them to a variery of examples of literature and non fiction, a Key Stage 3 page with prizes as added incentives, an EBACC page for channelling more able students to extend their reading, there are many possibilities! It would also work as a way of encouraging staff in the workplace to read, having to engage in a dialogue is such a public forum public that they may feel pressured enough to make some time in their busy lives to read.

The sharing of ideas from reading both literature and non – fiction is a great way to challenge and motivate. The timing is good too, as it is lock down January where most people need to reign in the excesses of Christmas, what better way to spend a wintry evening than by reading a good book!

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