Zuckerberg's list of 20 must-read books

It isn't really "What Zuckerberg is reading" though, it's one of many PR/business moves. Just like learning Chinese (to reach China, a billion+ users), Sherylberg doing her part (to keep/reach 3.5 billion), and so on forth.

You'll notice that the Zuckerberg list is interesting for a few reasons.

Specifically, the authors. They're from all over the place. They're all races.

* White woman: Eula Biss

* Black woman: Michelle Alexander

* Indian man: Venkatesh

* Muslim man: Ibn Khaldun

* Chinese man: Suk-Young Chwe

* White man: Peter Huber

* Jewish man: Thomas Kuhn

It's a list designed to appease all people and paint Zuckerberg in a nice, relatable-guy light.

The subject matter is very diverse too: he's got the Pixar interest -- oh my, I love Pixar movies! He's got the nice nerdy physics interest? Me too! He's reading about Orwell! About spirituality! etc.

Look, I'm sorry if my reading comes of as being cynical... this is just how the game works. When I was writing for a magazine, my editor and I did the same thing. For whatever it's worth, the book list by itself is nice... go read the books, but don't read them because "Zuckerberg is suggesting" them to you -- he's not, this is a business, PR-move, read them because they are good books by themselves.

That was my knee-jerk reaction, but he has quite a few books I have read and liked on his list (and they aren't all obvious choices - Ibn Khaldun, for example).

Why not? I've been impressed with his leadership at FB. He's more mature than I would have expected, after the first few years.