In this paper, we present a study of non-linearity in storytelling in a collection of 2,348 books published since 2001 that are divided among 10 different categories. We employ word embeddings to capture the semantic non-linearity of a book, along with three associated measures called speed, volume, and distance. We find that narrative non-linearity is strongly associated with the communication of non-instrumental (imaginary) information, but only very weakly negatively associated with a book's success. When we decompose non-linearity, we observe that reader preferences for books favor greater narrative distance with lower speed, i.e. books that take readers further but do so more parsimoniously are more successful. Our work aims to contribute to a growing body of studies that use computational methods to better understand human narrative behavior.

在本文中，我们介绍了 2001 年以来出版的 2,348 本书中非线性讲故事的研究，这些图书分为 10 个不同的类别。我们使用词嵌入来捕捉一本书的语义非线性，以及三个相关的度量，称为速度、体积和距离。我们发现，叙事的非线性与非工具性（虚构）信息的交流密切相关，但与一本书的成功只有非常微弱的负相关。当我们分解非线性时，我们观察到读者对书籍的偏好倾向于以较低的速度进行更大的叙事距离，即让读者走得更远但更节俭的书籍更成功。