  Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing formal education, fueled by
innovations in learning assessment, content generation, and instructional
delivery. Informal, lifelong learning settings have been the subject of less
attention. We provide a proof-of-concept for an embodied book discussion
companion, designed to stimulate conversations with readers about particularly
creative metaphors in fiction literature. We collect ratings from 26
participants, each of whom discuss Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" with the
robot across one or more sessions, and find that participants rate their
interactions highly. This suggests that companion robots could be an
interesting entryway for the promotion of lifelong learning and cognitive
exercise in future applications.
