Many have lamented the lost art of reading in our social-media-driven, content-hungry world, but few have actually tried to do anything about it.
在社交媒體發達、追求新鮮內容的當今世界，很多人為閱讀藝術的日漸式微而感到惋惜，但很少有人真正嘗試為此做出什么。

But whether or not you think people aren't reading long-form material as much as they used to, you can probably still get excited about free reading material. In Grenoble, France, a city known as the capital of the French Alps, a publishing start-up called Short édition has installed eight free story-dispensing vending machines in some of its most popular public spaces.
不過，不管你是不是認為人們已經不再像以前那樣喜歡閱讀長篇讀物了，你可能還是會為有免費讀物而感到興奮的。在法國阿爾卑斯山區的首府城市格勒諾布爾市（Grenoble），一家名為Short édition的出版業初創公司在該市人流最密集的幾處公共場所安置了8臺免費短篇小說自動售賣機。

The strange, screen-less contraptions are the brainchild of Christophe Sibieude (the co-founder and head of Short édition) and Grenoble's mayor, éric Piolle. The pair hope that commuters and bystanders will make use of these stories to expand and enrich their minds while waiting around, rather than tapping their way aimlessly through Facebook or Twitter. Stories are dispensed according to how much time you've got to spend reading (one-, three-, and five-minute options are available), and the stories are printed out on long receipt-like paper.
這些連屏幕都沒有的奇怪裝置是Short édition公司的聯合創始人和負責人克里斯托夫·西比約德（Christophe Sibieude）和格勒諾布爾市長埃里克·皮奧勒（éric Piolle）構想出來的。兩人希望上班族和路人在等待的時候能閱讀這些故事，開闊眼界、充實思想，而不是一味地刷Facebook和Twitter。這種短篇小說ATM機吐出的小說長度取決于你有多長的時間可以用來閱讀（有一分鐘、三分鐘和五分鐘可選）。這些故事是用類似收據小票的長紙條打印的。

"The idea came to us in front of a vending machine containing chocolate bars and drinks," Sibieude told AFP. "We said to ourselves that we could do the same thing with good quality popular literature to occupy these little unproductive moments."
西比約德告訴法新社的記者：“站在一個巧克力棒和飲料自動售賣機前時，我們想出了這一創意。我們告訴自己，我們同樣可以做高質量的大眾文學讀物ATM機，來打發這些零碎的閑暇時光”。

Vocabulary

lament：感到遺憾，感到失望

contraption：（尤指古怪的）裝置

英文來源：Mental Floss

譯者：張卉

審校&編輯：劉明