DownWithTyranny!: Say, Mark Zuckerberg, what be these mysterious devices you've discovered called . . . um, "books"?

In case you're keeping count, as of when I looked this evening, "Mariel Feliciano and 123,347 others like[d] this."

by Ken

I know, I know, you're thinking it's both obvious and childish to be the umpteenth, or umpteen thousandth, person to jump ugly on Facebook guru, and therefore media wizard, Mark Zuckerberg for writing, in a January 2 Facebook post:

My challenge for 2015 is to read a new book every other week -- with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies. . . .

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.

But the way I see it, there's no way Mark can possibly be ridiculed enough. I can't even imagine what it might mean to say that he has been "ridiculed enough."

So thanks for the invite, Mark, but no, I don't thinking I'll be signing on to your "A Year of Books" page. Especially with that polite but stern caution about only participating in the discussions if we've actually read the books and have relevant points to add. This is probably wise, especially considering that there are people out here who got through years and years of schooling (K-A.B., for example) reading hardly any of the books we were supposed to. I can see why you would want to moderate the group to keep it focused. Don't you just hate an unfocused group?

Don't get me wrong, though. I'm a big fan of "relevant points." I hope your group rustles some up. And generally speaking I hope that you have a great year with your year in books, and that you get all the good ones read, as I gather that for 2016 you'll be moving on to your next "challenge," just like how when you finished 2013 and that year's challenge of meeting a new person every day. (I hope meeting those 365 people worked out.)

As to the ridicule you'll be soaking up, I hope it will be focused too. Like I thought Matthew Iglesias was off to a good start, with a snappy title on his Vox post: "Mark Zuckerberg discovers that books are pretty great." Ooh, snap, Matty! But would you believe that before long Matty is telling us what book he's currently reading? (No, I'm not going to tell you. That's his news. Find out about it on his page.) And rattling on about how he "actually find[s] the internet to be an indispensable companion to non-fiction reading" blah-blah-blah, something about the two Sicilies.

Okay, here's my deal. You send me a buck, I'll tell you what book (books, actually) I'm reading. Some of them I actually finish, but if you want to know about that, that'll cost you another buck.

Matty does rally to note that "Matt Zeitlin notes that the Zuckerberg endorsement has sent The End of Power rocketing up the Amazon charts as the book has 'shot up over 44,000 places on Amazon's ranking of book sales' since the Facebook founder's post." (Way to go, Mark! You don't suppose he has a commission deal with Amazon, do you?)

When it comes to laying it on our Mark, our friend Alexandra Petri at washingtonpost.com seems to me really "carrying the water," as Rush Limbaugh might say. Here's what Alexandra had to say in her post, "After learning about books, Mark Zuckerberg discovers other exciting technologies":

Based on this response, I tried introducing Zuckerberg to other Shocking Innovations:

Print Newspapers: “I’ve found these to be an incredible experience. How to describe them? They’re like a newsfeed, but with much less time devoted to the ice bucket challenge. No pictures of people’s babies or salads, which took a little getting used to, but I really enjoyed the classifieds, which were like a printout of Craigslist submitted entirely by older people. All in all, it’s a manageable amount of reading that really adds to your info diet and even forces you into contact with foreign news. Can’t wait to explore this more.”

The Sky: “It’s like your desktop background, but with a less saturated blue. I’m excited to interface with it further.”

Human Faces: “These things are incredible. They’re like emoticons whose meaning is not always instantly clear! I am eager to explore these in much greater depth.”

Frozen Food: “This amazed me because it was good for a long time, not like farm-to-table, which you have to eat right away. Also, if you want a food that is not currently in season, you can have it. Who thinks these things up?”

Cats: “These offer advantages over the GIFs and pictures of cats that we so commonly see on the Internet because you can have them with you all the time and they offer a whole range of expressions, as well as an almost human-like companionship. I look forward to engaging more with these incredible devices as the year continues.”

Pictures: “So far, I have enjoyed engaging with these quaint physical objects that depict or represent other objects! You can carry these around with you and display them on walls.”

Walls: “These things are real game-changers right here. They protect against sleet, rain, and hail, and they also offer flat surfaces on which you can post or hang things. What a great notion.”

Telephones: “You just hear a human voice, uninterrupted, and that can be a very powerful thing.”

“All in all, these are some disruptive innovations,” Zuckerberg concluded.