My friend Susan's friend Trong made an art project involving rice, mylar, gold, and first chapters of four books.
The four books are The Prince, Faust, Autobiography of a Yogi, and Radio Free Albemuth, a loaded juxtaposition, I'd say. The only one I've read is Faust, but I was familiar with all but Radio Free Albemuth, which turns out to be a posthumous Philip K. Dick novel. Interestingly, the Yogi is the wordiest, and the Prince the least so--at least in the first chapter. Shocker.