The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook – Ben Mezrich – Genre – True Stories
Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg – an awkward maths prodigy and a painfully shy computer genius – were never going to fit in at elite, polished Harvard. Yet that all changed when master-hacker Mark crashed the university’s entire computer system by creating a rateable database of female students. Narrowly escaping expulsion, the two misfits refocused the site into something less controversial – ‘The Facebook’ – and watched as it spread like a wildfire across campuses around the country, along with their popularity.
Yet amidst the dizzying levels of cash and glamour, as silicon valley, venture capitalists and reams of girls beckoned, the first cracks in their friendship started to appear, and what began as a simple argument spiralled into an out-and-out war. The great irony is that Facebook succeeded by bringing people together – but its very success tore two best friends apart.
My Review: This is a fascinating account of the start of Facebook exploring the personalities and reasons behind this global social network website. The film The Social Network is based on this film, but as usual I think the book is much better!