Journey’s the end ... a short story vending machine in Grenoble. Photograph: AFP JP Clatot

A publisher is doing brisk business dispensing free fiction from machines in Grenoble, to help readers make the most of ‘dead time’ on their journeys.
Readers in Grenoble can now nibble fiction instead of vending machine snacks, after publisher Short Édition introduced eight short-story dispensers around the French city.