Former Fortune journalist and author David Kirkpatrick has joined The Daily Beast as technology columnist. Daily Beast executive editor Edward Felsenthal had this statement: “David has a long, extraordinary record as a reporter, author and convenor of the best minds in technology, we are thrilled to have him.”

We interviewed Kirkpatrick for Media Beat earlier this year, talking about his new book, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. Follow the links below to watch the series.

One installment is embedded above, as Kirkpatrick advised young journalists: “I would say write a book, if you possibly can. Even in this world we live in that’s all digital and short hits. But don’t do it unless you are passionate about the topic.”

Part One: David Kirkpatrick Predicts Facebook’s Future

Part Two: David Kirkpatrick Advises 21st Century Journalists

Books about Facebook, BlackBerry, and environmentalism topped J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s 11th annual Summer Reading List. Every summer the bank sends clients a list of recommended books to read, a list culled from 450 books recommended by bankers around the world.

The Wall Street Journal dubbed it “The Billionaire Book Club.” J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s chief communications officer, Darin Oduyoye explained why they picked The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick at WSJ: “Obviously a lot of our clients are entrepreneurs and are launching businesses and thinking about the entrepreneurial dram. This book goes inside Mark Zuckerberg and his dream to create Facebook.”

We interviewed Kirkpatrick to get some of his Facebook predictions at MediaBeat–maybe if you follow his advice you can join the billionaire club. Below, see the rest of the book club picks.

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Last night publishing leaders, technology writers, magazine editors, and mediabistro.com founder Laurel Touby mingled at the glitzy book party for David Kirkpatrick. We missed the party, but received a dispatch and that photo of Kirkpatrick (via Gabriel Cid).

Here’s more about the party: “Miles Nadal, Chairman & CEO of MDC Partners, hosted a cocktail party last night celebrating the release of David Kirkpatrick‘s new book, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. The event was held at Michael’s Restaurant and was attended by Saul Hansell (noted technology writer), Andy Serwer (managing editor of Fortune), Dan Colarusso (Managing Editor of Bloomberg TV), and Priscilla Painton (Editor in Chief of Simon & Schuster).”

Next week, mediabistro.com’s video series MediaBeat will host a three-part interview with Kirkpatrick, talking about his new book, his magazine career, and how he turned his nonfiction reporting into a book deal.

Yesterday TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington posted an angry response to Simon & Schuster following a lengthy email exchange about his posting of excerpts from a book.

Last week TechCrunch posted excerpts from The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company by David Kirkpatrick. Arrington reprinted the email exchange he had with publicists and lawyers asking him to remove the excerpts–they expected he would only post excerpts of the excerpts.

Here’s the heart of Arrington’s post: “So just to be very clear, Simon & Schuster is threatening legal action unless I take down my post linking to pre-sales of the book and giving it a huge thumbs up. Because I posted excerpts of the book that are also posted online on Fortune and other sites … In my world, where content is quickly ripped off without attribution every day, a link is gold.”

In June, our video interview program Media Beat will host an exclusive interview with Kirkpatrick about his book. Simon & Schuster responds after the jump…

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