Two of the hostess' friends (and two of their friends) finger the material, chitchat and flip through sample books.

FORBES: Sibling rivalry

It may be coincidence or a skew in our sample, but the tone of these books is distinctly pessimistic.

ECONOMIST: French fiction

Nor are the books Google has already chosen to scan necessarily a representative sample of literature across the ages.

ECONOMIST: Science invades the humanities