Bookworms Rejoice! A Short Story Vending Machine Now Exists
The death of reading and publishing seems imminent at this point in history, with everything moving toward digital outlets, and shorter and shorter reads. But, does the latter necessarily have to be a bad thing? A French publishing start-up called Short Edition is aiming to get quality literature in front of readers once again, but in short form that can be squeezed in between copious amounts of smartphone and social media scrolling.
Stories can be selected by how much time you have to spend reading: as you can see there are 1, 3 and 5 minute options for a quick read. Seems like the perfect solution to spending your time rather than tapping away on your smartphone waiting in a line somewhere or taking public transit.
Sibieude explains:
"The idea came to us in front of a vending machine containing chocolate bars and drinks. We said to ourselves that we could do the same thing with good quality popular literature to occupy these little unproductive moments."
Hopefully, this vending machines will be the answer to getting people to look up from their phones, if only for a moment to dispense a short story, then once again bury their face in a short story. Better the latter than the former,