With our phones, tablets, computers, and even smartwatches being connected to the internet all the time, taking a break from the virtual world to just sit back and enjoy a book is becoming harder, not to mention rarer these days. However over in the city of Grenoble in France, it seems that vending machines have been installed throughout the city.
These vending machines don’t dispense food or drink, but rather they dispense short stories. The idea behind it is to provide residents an opportunity to pass the time by reading, and like we said with busy schedules with the bombardment of information from the internet, short stories will let people enjoy reading without taking up too much of their time.
The machine will dispense stories in the form of a receipt that is small and pocketable. Users can choose from three buttons to press, with the buttons ranging from one minute, three minutes, or five minutes, indicating the length of the story. However apart from the length, users don’t have the opportunity to choose the story as one will be selected at random for them, courtesy of the folks at Short Edition.
So far eight locations throughout the city of Grenoble have been chosen to pilot this project, including libraries, the city hall, and the tourism office. We expect if this initiative is picked up that more machines will be installed, so if you are visiting on holiday or if live in the city, perhaps these machines might be worth checking out.
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