Mark Zuckerberg starts online book club, sells out Amazon

The founder of Facebook is encouraging the 30 million users of his site to join him in reading a new book every other week this year

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Getty)

Mark Zuckerberg has come up with a novel idea for 2015: a virtual book club.

The founder of Facebook is encouraging the 30 million users of his site to join him in reading a new book every other week this year, and to participate in literary discussions on his 'A Year of Books' Facebook page.

The books chosen are to have an emphasis on learning about different beliefs and cultures.

The page has already received over 122,000 likes, and the first book on the list - Moises Naim’s The End of Power - was out of stock on Amazon by Sunday night.

The book, first published in 2013, explores how the world is shifting to give individual people more power - a trend Zuckerberg claims to “believe in deeply”.

The foundation of the club comes after more than 50,000 different ideas were suggested by Facebook users as New Year challenges Zuckerberg could take part in.

Many thought the entrepreneur should give money to charity, a challenge Zuckerberg promises he will continue to do.

In the past, Zuckerberg's resolutions have included only eating meat that he had killed himself. But this year, he is working on another kind of nourishment.

“I'm looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books,” he said.

It may prove to be the only diet that lasts past January.