By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Snack on this French vending machines spit out short stories
469fe7da87c70f88c4735900f465fb8e881098450dea599c995f80c7a17b24f4
French publisher Short dition developed vending machines that dispense short stories instead of snacks, according to Smithsonian.com. Here's why. - photo by Payton Davis
In Grenoble, France, when people with a bit of downtime toggle vending machine buttons, short stories spit out rather than fatty snacks.

That's made possible by publisher Short dition, which introduced eight short-story dispensers around the city, according to The Guardian. Readers select one, three or five minutes of fiction, and at the touch of a button, the machines print prose out on rolls of paper.

What's the purpose?

Short dition hopes stories will fill dead time in people's lives when they'd normally opt to toggle their phones, The Guardian reported.

"In the bus, the tram or the metro, everyone can make the most of these moments to read short stories, poems or short comics," The Guardian quoted a statement from Short dition as saying. "And they can be sure to enjoy the ending."

DJ Pangburn wrote for Good magazine that genres offered currently include adventure, thriller, drama and romance. And every story dispensed can be read by a 10-year-old as developers sought to make the resource available to a broad target audience.

The short story dispensers are free and available at anytime, Good indicated.

Unfortunately, all the machines are in Grenoble, Claire Fallon wrote for The Huffington Post.

But co-founder Quentin Plepl told The Guardian positive feedback makes expanding a possibility.

"The feedback we got has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are thrilled to see it working so well," The Guardian quoted Plepl as saying. " We are getting requests from all over the world Australia, the U.S., Canada, Russia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Chile, Taiwan that we are processing meticulously one by one."

Erin Blakemore wrote for Smithsonian.com that until then, Americans have a few other surprising places to find prose.

"You only have to look as far as your Chipotle bag or cup to read two-minute stories from celebrated American authors," according to the report. "Maybe one day, American vending machines will serve up literature that's just as satisfying as any snack."
Sign up for our e-newsletters