[im3w1l]

> Take a random book from from most periods of history

I'd be very interested in doing in doing just that. How would I go about it? Weighted by popularity in that era would be fine, but not weighted according to current popularity.

[aagha]

I'm sure you can find old books scanned online [0], or you could go to library--especially if you're in a town with a lot of history (Boston, NYC)--even better if you're in Europe.

Librarians are fantastic for this kind of thing. Tell them what you're trying to do, and they're marvelous and helping you find a way to use books and other resources to help you.

0 - https://www.google.com/googlebooks/about/