While the printed short story may have become less popular in recent years due to the rise of the smartphone, the novel’s younger sibling is about to gain a new lease of life in France, reports The Independent.
The southern city of Grenoble will soon become home to numerous ‘vending machines’ that dispense short stories for you to read on your commute.
Short Édition has made over 600 short stories from their library available to purchase, each one falling into one of three options - one-, two- or five-minute reads.
The publishing company is primarily online, with a community of over 141,000 subscribers and 1,100 authors. It was co-founded by Quentin Plepé whose team came up with the idea while waiting around an office snack machine.
"The city was on board from the beginning," Plepé told Fast Company. "What they really liked was the fact that the dispensers distribute culture through the city in an original way.