France is way ahead of us..... WAY ahead!!

[Blue_Tires]

The French city of Grenoble wants its citizens to spend less time looking at their phones and more time reading original short stories.

Publishing company Short Edition partnered with the city to install eight vending machines in public locations that dispense short stories instead of snacks and sodas.

The stories are printed on long receipt-like paper and readers can choose between minute-long, three minute-long or five minute-long narratives.

All the stories are written by the Short Edition community and are free for readers.

Short Edition said its members got the idea while they were waiting in front of a chocolate candy machine.

"We said to ourselves that we could do the same thing with good quality popular literature to occupy these little unproductive moments," Christophe Sibieude, co-founder, told Agence-France Presse.

The short story vending machines are currently just part of a pilot project, but they could remain available at their public locations for longer.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/french-city-installs-terminals-dispense-short-stories-article-1.2419965

[NV Whino]

1. Great idea

And, short stories are generally shortchanged anyway.

[malthaussen]

2. Can I get a Coke with that?

Great idea. I had no idea there were so many starving authors in Grenoble, though.

-- Mal

[eppur_se_muova]

3. I've long thought that pocket paperbacks should be sold from vending machines.

All the romance, mystery, thriller potboilers that sell in volume with high turnover should be relegated to machines accessible from outside -- even after store closing hours. Let the bookstore staff spend their time helping people who are looking for quality reading material. (Of course, companies interested only in maximum profits would just not have a store. Then the only bookstores would be *real* bookstores.)

Do the same with CD's, for the same reason.

Heck, if we can rent movie DVD's from a machine why not get our music and books the same way ?