Stories, not soda.

• Position: LITERATURE - Vending machine in Grenoble, France - Brief article

France has a new kind of vending machine that doesn't spit out chips or candy, but free short stories. The city of Grenoble recently installed eight machines in places like City Hall and the tourism office to give people something to read while waiting in line. Created by the start-up Short Edition, the machines have a database of 600 stories of various lengths. You press a button to say how much time you have--1, 3, or 5 minutes--and the printing begins. Since it's free, don't expect Hemingway or Flaubert. But the tales are chosen competitively by an online panel, with writers...