Eight orange vending machines that offer 1, 3, and 5-minute printed literature for free will strategically pepper the French City of Grenoble.
This initiative by the City Mayor will make the literary pieces available to the city's residents and visitors at the push of a button. With commuters and pedestrians in mind, the environment-friendly recycled paper used is sized to fit the reader's wallet.
Digital publisher Christophe Sibieude, who was responsible for putting the idea forward to the city council says, "The idea came to us in front of a vending machine containing chocolate bars and drinks. We said to ourselves that we could do the same thing with good quality popular literature to occupy these little unproductive moments."
Among the literature that will be available on these machines are writings of Sibieude's smartphone app Short Edition's 140,000 subscribers.
A significant contributor to the idea's realisation is Grenoble City Mayor Eric Piolle. The Mayor, who is from the Green Party, used to be a business executive. As a mayor, Piolle has had his brush with controversy for such decisions as banning street advertisements from the city centre in favour of more trees and hedges. He also called for the more pedestrian spaces in Genoble and for the lowering of the city speed limit to 30 kmph. A few of his efforts were more severely protested against. The idea of converting shopping streets into bike lanes caused anxiety among local traders. These initiatives earned international attention.
In explanation Piolle says, "We are trying to re-imagine the city center as a place of shared experiences."
"We are trying to launch a revolution, and the objective is to build a wider and calmer downtown area."
Similar drives as the Grenoble's literary vending machines to encourage reading have seen prior incarnations such as the pop-up kiosks at train stations that offer free books from Toronto's Public Library. A successful art structure in California built with 50,000 books allowed visitors to take home a copy of any of these books.