You see the world strictly in status form, you sometimes
have the uncanny urge to poke your friends or acquaintances, and you value your
life in terms of the number of pictures you’ve got tagged. Give it up — you’re
a Facebook freak. While it’s clear that the social-networking phenomenon has
some kind of scary power over us, few actually know all the salacious details
of how its founder, a whiz kid from that little school across the river
(Harvard — you may have heard of it), became one of the world’s youngest
billionaires. That’s why the new book from Boston-based scribe Ben Mezrich, The
Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook — A Tale of Sex, Money,
Genius and Betrayal, will be such a must-read addition to our
beach bag this month. With his fifth nonfiction work, Mezrich (the man behind
the hugely successful Bringing Down the House)
recounts the rise of the two boys who brought “friending” to the forefront of
our daily lexicons — and the eventual dissolution of their friendship. To find
out how what started as little more than a school prank evolved into the
world’s largest social-networking site, pick up the summer’s stranger-than-fiction
thrill ride on bookshelves on July 14. Or, you can go straight to the source
when Mezrich speaks at the Brattle Theatre (40 Brattle
Street, Cambridge, 617.876.6837) at 6 p.m. on July 16. Get tickets ($5) by
calling the Harvard Book Store (1256 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, 617.661.1515) or by visiting www.harvard.com. It’ll give you tons to
FB post about, we’re sure.
