The Pleasant Hill BART station is one of three stations with a new short-story dispenser offering free printed reading material to passengers. (Dan Brekke/KQED)

These days, most BART riders spend their travel time staring at their phones—and understandably so. In an increasingly digitized world accelerated by the isolation of the pandemic, our lives have migrated almost entirely online.

BART installed a short story dispenser at four stations. This image shows the one installed at Pleasanton Station. (Photo courtesy of BART).

BART has installed Short Story Dispensers at some of its stations, including the Richmond station. The touchless dispensers print out short stories for riders to read — for free.

The Station coffee shop on Beacon Hill has the city’s first short-story dispenser, installed by Seattle Public Library. It... (Alan Berner / The Seattle Times)

These days, with modern technology providing such easy access to all kinds of digital content, it’s tempting to think that reading something on paper is a thing of the past.

Perth is set to become the first Australian city to permanently hero the international literary trend: the very, very short story. The short story dispensing machines that distribute a variety of one, three or five-minute stories are the brainchild Short Edition, a French community publisher of short-form literature and will find its home at Raine Square from Friday 16 October.

Modern life may seem like it’s all about speed and efficiency, but it still involves a lot of waiting around, and when it does, we end up pulling out our phones while we wait in lines at the coffee shop or for the next train. 

 But if you stop by the Santa Barbara Public Market, you’ll find an alternative solution to boredom.

Visitors to the Public Market can find a different way to pass the time with a Short Story Dispenser, installed at the beginning of last April by the Squire Foundation in partnership with the Public Market.

The stories are printed on eco-friendly papyrus paper. Image: REUTERS/Simon Dawson

Once upon a time, in one of the busiest parts of one of the busiest cities in the world, the people were so busy, they didn’t have time to finish reading lengthy works of fiction. So three vending machines were set up, dishing out not chocolate bars or cans of drink, but free short stories to those rushing by.

French creation, the short story dispenser, are now springing up around the world.

The Short Story Dispenser was invented by Short Edition, a French publishing house. Since 2015, the machines have been dispensing short stories on receipt paper that range from one to five minute reads, free of charge. The machines have proven so popular in France that they're now springing up around the world.

The Death of Mr Robinson, a one-minute read printed by a free short story vending machine in Canary Wharf station. The story was commissioned for the project from novelist Anthony Horowitz. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

‘Short story stations’ in Canary Wharf print one- three- and five-minute reads on demand “Every single day,” says Paresh Raichura, “I’m on the lookout for something new to read.” On his hour-long commute to Canary Wharf, where he works for the Financial Ombudsman, he picks up Time Out or a local paper or the freesheet Metro, but says: “I’ve stopped reading all the long novels I used to read.”

The machines, made by French company Short Édition, will dispense free one, three and five-minute stories … with the first penned by Anthony Horowitz. Weary city workers will have a new way of passing the time on their commute once the UK’s first short-story vending machines are installed at Canary Wharf this week.

CBS News - Let There Be Lit

Reading for pleasure is at an all-time low in the United States. A recent government report revealed Americans read for fun about 17 minutes each day. And the percentage of Americans indulging in leisure reading on any given day dropped by nearly 30 percent between 2003 and 2017. One solution to our short attention spans and even shorter spurts of free time are short stories. They are low commitment and high gratitude, and can transport readers to far-flung places.

Siobhan Reardon and Chellie Cameron give the dispenser a spinPhiladelphia International Airport

Being stranded at the airport usually means scrolling through social media, or picking up a newspaper or magazine. But those doesn't need to be your only options at Philadelphia International Airport, where a free, no-WiFi-required alternative was unveiled Friday: a Short Story Dispenser, put in place by the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Once upon a time, a kiosk dreamed of delivering something more exciting than tickets.