A short story vending machine in Grenoble

In a time where progression in every field of human endeavour involves ever smarter phones, virtual reality or colonising Mars, it is of some comfort to hear that a new innovation exciting people across the Channel involves none of the above.

Don't have time to read any more? Residents in a town in southern France don't have that problem. Thanks to the startup website short-editions-dot-com 10,000 short story authors have been matched with a community of 150,000 regular readers with time to kill while waiting on line. David Turecamo explains an innovative technology.

Le réalisateur Francis Ford Coppola a installé un distributeur d’histoires courtes au Cafe Zoetrope, son restaurant de San Francisco. OLIVIER ALEXANDRE/SHORT EDITION

Alors que d’autres figures du cinéma sont à Cannes, Francis Ford Coppola fait la promotion de la littérature à San Francisco.
Le réalisateur a installé un distributeur d’histoires courtes dans son restaurant, le Cafe Zoetrope.

The Alpine city of Grenoble has scored a surprising hit with automatic dispensers that offer free printed short stories

A flight of the imagination is transforming one of the banes of French life — waiting for service in state offices — into an opportunity to immerse oneself in the written word. The Alpine city of Grenoble has scored a surprising hit with automatic dispensers that offer free printed short stories to citizens waiting for their bout with bureaucracy.

The city of Grenoble, France, is testing the first models of a local startup’s short-story vending machine.Photograph by Pauline Bock

When Jess Mateychuk entered the tourism office in Grenoble, France, he wasn’t looking for information about the city. “I finally found them!” the twenty-one-year-old exchange student from Winnipeg, Canada, said with excitement. He was referring to the city’s recent cultural innovation turned Internet hit: a black and orange, rocket-looking cylinder that spits out short stories, free of charge.