This is not a high energy book!

You'll have a much better time watching the movie The Social Network (I did, on the plane, from Munich to Singapore), you might even come away with a sense of who was nasty and who was nice, but reading the book is like eating white toast bread. Tasteless. And disappointing. Being a firm believe of the old cliche that the book is better than the film, I was expecting to come away with some tangible insights. I didn't.

It's nothing to do with Mezrich's skill as a writer. He remains dutifully even-handed from the first to the last page. It's simply because (oh no, I'm doing it again, placing the author in his social context, slap my wrist!) Mezrich belongs to the same set of people about whom he is writing, and while he's keen to tell a story, he's also minding his "p"s and "q"s.

You aren't going to get the real low-down on who did with what and stabbed whom how hard and for how much reading this book. You'll find out quite some background (and if you like that, I recommend the book), and you might be left with equal quantities of sympathy for all the players (insofar as they are depicted as being deserving of sympathy, which is an entirely subjective view-point). But if actions speak louder than words, watch the film. Zuckerberg has reinstated Savarin as co-founder publically, and Saverin has received an undisclosed pay-out sum, the WV twins are now arguing that the 2008 valuation of Face-book has left them short-changed, and meanwhile Sean Parker still smiling.

And while you're watching the film, keep in the back of your mind that Goodreads is a social network site. If there are privacy and potential misuse issues surrounding your use of Facebook, be sure the same issues are only a few profile pages away here. I know. One of my friends was just hauled off the site for being too close to the industry.