With a myriad of technological distractions available, reading is quickly becoming a less popular way of killing the time. French publishing company Second Edition are trying to change this by encouraging people to read during their daily commute with its public vending machines that dispense short stories.
The number of people commuting on public transport with their heads glued to their phones, iPods, tablets or some other kind of device, far outweighs the number of people reading books. To spark a reading revolution, several vending machines now dot the streets of the French city of Grenoble, holding quality short stories written by authors in the Short Edition community.
The system is fairly simple. A user punches in how many minutes they have to spare and the vending machine prints out a randomly selected story on a long receipt slip. The idea behind the machines is to get locals more interested in a good read rather than browsing social media pages.
