Purple, Prose: The new book Nabokov's Favorite Word is Mauve subjects thousands of books to statistical analysis. Let's acknowledge this at the top: It's a thin slice. To gaze across the great swath ...

In his new book, statistician Ben Blatt loads thousands of books, new and old, into a vast database and uncovers intriguing patterns in how our... 'Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve' Crunches The ...

Let's acknowledge this at the top: It's a thin slice. To gaze across the great swath of written English over the past few centuries — that teeming, jostling, elbow-throwing riot of characters and ...