A Year of Books 2015

Mark Zuckerberg's A Year of Books: The Full 2015 Reading Challenge

On January 2, 2015, Mark Zuckerberg announced his New Year's resolution on Facebook: he would read a new book every other week, with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies. He called the project "A Year of Books" and ran it as a public book club, picking a title roughly every two weeks and inviting Facebook users to read along and discuss. By the end of 2015 he had selected 23 books, skewing heavily toward dense nonfiction on power, history, science, and economics. This page documents the full verified list in order, what Zuckerberg said in his own words about why he started, and what the selections reveal about how one of the world's most influential founders chooses to learn.

What books did Mark Zuckerberg read in his 2015 A Year of Books challenge?

Across 2015, Zuckerberg selected 23 books, beginning with Moisés Naím's "The End of Power" (his first pick) and Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature." Other selections included Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens," Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," Ibn Khaldun's "The Muqaddimah," Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson's "Why Nations Fail," Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem," Henry Kissinger's "World Order," and David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity." The list was overwhelmingly nonfiction, chosen, in his words, to "emphasize learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies."

What Was Mark Zuckerberg's A Year of Books Challenge?

A Year of Books was a public reading challenge Zuckerberg launched on January 2, 2015 as his personal New Year's resolution. The rule was simple: read a new book every other week — roughly 26 books over the year — with a deliberate emphasis on titles that taught him about different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies. He ran it as an open Facebook book club, posting each selection to a dedicated "A Year of Books" page and inviting anyone to read along and discuss. Zuckerberg framed the choice of medium deliberately, writing that he had "found reading books very intellectually fulfilling" and that "books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today." In practice he completed 23 selections across the year rather than the full 26, but the cadence and the seriousness of the list set it apart from typical celebrity book clubs.

The Complete A Year of Books List, in Order

The 23 selections, in the order Zuckerberg announced them, were: "The End of Power" by Moisés Naím; "The Better Angels of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker; "Gang Leader for a Day" by Sudhir Venkatesh; "On Immunity: An Inoculation" by Eula Biss; "Creativity, Inc." by Ed Catmull; "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn; "Rational Ritual" by Michael Chwe; "Dealing With China" by Henry Paulson; "Orwell's Revenge" by Peter Huber; "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander; "The Muqaddimah" by Ibn Khaldun; "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari; "The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks; "Energy: A Beginner's Guide" by Vaclav Smil; "Genome" by Matt Ridley; "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James; "Portfolios of the Poor" by Daryl Collins et al.; "Why Nations Fail" by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson; "The Rational Optimist" by Matt Ridley; "The Three-Body Problem" by Liu Cixin; "The Idea Factory" by Jon Gertner; "World Order" by Henry Kissinger; and "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. Only one of the 23 — "The Player of Games" — is fiction; the rest is nonfiction.

Why He Started With The End of Power

Zuckerberg's first pick was Moisés Naím's "The End of Power," and the choice was pointed. Naím argues that power is fragmenting — shifting away from large governments, militaries, and corporate giants toward smaller, nimbler "micropowers": startups, activists, hedge funds, and individuals connected through technology. Announcing the selection, Zuckerberg wrote that the book "explores how the world is shifting to give individual people more power that was traditionally only held by large governments, militaries and other organizations." He went further, tying it to his own worldview: "The trend towards giving people more power is one I believe in deeply, and I'm looking forward to reading this book and exploring this in more detail." For the founder of a platform built on giving individuals a voice, opening the year with a thesis about distributed power was a deliberate statement of values.

The Themes That Run Through the List

The 23 titles are not random; they cluster around a few obsessions. History and the long arc of civilization recur in "Sapiens," "The Muqaddimah" (a 14th-century work of historiography by the North African scholar Ibn Khaldun), "World Order," and "Why Nations Fail." Optimism backed by data appears in Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature," which Zuckerberg described as "a timely book about how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history, and how we can continue this trend," and in Matt Ridley's "The Rational Optimist." Science and progress drive "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," "Genome," "Energy: A Beginner's Guide," and "The Beginning of Infinity." Inequality and society anchor "The New Jim Crow," "Gang Leader for a Day," and "Portfolios of the Poor." The throughline is a founder using a year of structured reading to stress-test his own optimistic, technology-forward view of how the world changes.

What Happened to A Year of Books After 2015

A Year of Books was explicitly a one-year resolution, and Zuckerberg did not formally continue the every-two-weeks cadence into 2016; his subsequent annual "personal challenges" moved to other goals, such as building an AI assistant for his home and running 365 miles in a year. The book club's measurable effect on sales was uneven: while some commentators predicted an "Oprahesque" impact, Nielsen BookScan data showed no clear bump for the second pick, Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature." Yet the list endures as one of the most-cited tech reading lists on the internet, aggregated repeatedly by outlets from the World Economic Forum to Farnam Street. Its lasting value is less as a sales engine than as a window into how Zuckerberg deliberately reads to understand cultures, institutions, and the mechanics of change.

The Books on This List

The End of Power

Moisés Naím

Zuckerberg's first pick; he said it explores how the world is "shifting to give individual people more power" — a trend he believes in "deeply."

The Better Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker

His second pick, which he called "a timely book about how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history."

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

A sweeping history of the human species — one of the list's most enduringly popular selections.

The Muqaddimah

Ibn Khaldun

A 14th-century work of world history and social theory; the oldest and most unexpected title on the list.

The Three-Body Problem

Liu Cixin

A Chinese hard science-fiction novel of first contact and civilizational risk (the list's only novel proper is "The Player of Games").

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books did Mark Zuckerberg read in A Year of Books?

Zuckerberg selected 23 books across 2015. His original goal was a new book every other week — roughly 26 in a year — but he completed 23 selections through the public "A Year of Books" club he ran on Facebook.

What was the first book in Mark Zuckerberg's A Year of Books?

The first pick was "The End of Power" by Moisés Naím, announced on January 2, 2015. Zuckerberg chose it because it explores how power is shifting from large institutions toward individuals — a trend he wrote that he "believes in deeply."

Why did Mark Zuckerberg start a book club in 2015?

It was his New Year's resolution for 2015. He wanted to read a book every two weeks, emphasizing learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies, and explained that "books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today."

Did Mark Zuckerberg continue A Year of Books after 2015?

No. A Year of Books was a one-year resolution. Zuckerberg's later annual personal challenges shifted to other goals, such as building a home AI assistant and a yearly running target, though the 2015 reading list remains widely circulated.

Sources & Further Reading

Every stat and quote on this page is drawn from the primary and reputable secondary sources below.

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