Photo: Bookstr
This is a short story vending machine.
What do you do when you have to wait a long time in a line? Or when you are alone in a restaurant and forgot to bring a book? You know perfectly well that your phone is not always interesting.
That’s when you need to pull a short story out of a vending machine.
Laura M. Holson reports at the New York Times, “Short Edition, a French community publisher of short-form literature, has installed more than 30 story dispensers in the United States in the past year to deliver fiction at the push of a button at restaurants and universities, government offices and transportation hubs. …
“Here’s how a dispenser works: It is shaped like a cylinder with three buttons on top indicating a ‘one minute,’ ‘three minute’ or ‘five minute’ story. (That’s how long it takes to read.) When a button is pushed, a short story is printed, unfurled on a long strip of paper.
“The stories are free. They are retrieved from a computer catalog of more than 100,000 original submissions by writers whose work has been evaluated by Short Edition’s judges, and transmitted over a mobile network. Offerings can be tailored to specific interests: children’s fiction, romance, even holiday-themed tales. …
“Short Edition gets stories for its catalog by holding writing contests. It is currently holding one for students and faculty at Penn State called ‘New Beginnings.’ [Scott Varner, executive director of strategic communications for Columbus City Schools in Ohio,] asked if the company might hold a contest for stories about Columbus by local students and they are considering it, he said.
“ ‘It would be great to have 10th graders writing stories for third graders,’ he said. …
“The dispensers cost $9,200 plus an additional $190 per month for content and software. The only thing that needs to be replaced is paper. The printed stories have a double life, shared an average of 2.1 times, said [Short Edition export director Kristan] Leroy.
‘The idea is to make people happy,’ she said. ‘There is too much doom and gloom today.’ …
“[Andrew Nurkin, the deputy director of enrichment and civic engagement at the Free Library of Philadelphia,] has high hopes for his city. ‘We are interested in finding sites to engage audiences who aren’t necessarily coming to the library,’ he said. So much so, the library is considering installing dispensers at the Family Court Building and the Philadelphia International Airport.”
What a great concept! Surely, every motor vehicle office in America should have one. Hmmm. Maybe those stories would have to be longer.
More at the New York Times, here.
PS. The Guardian was two and a half years ahead of the Times on this innovation. I blogged about the roll-out in Europe here.
Photo: Star Tribune
