Vending machines used to sell reading

Spaniards have long been renowned across Europe for their reluctance to read – but now they have no excuse.

An enterprising publisher has installed vending machines in Barcelona subway stations, supplying bestselling paperbacks at the touch of a button.

Commuters need no long-er accept machines laden with only chocolate bars, packets of crisps or cigarettes. Instead, they can insert 4.80 euros (notes accepted and change given), press a button, select the latest John Grisham, Vargas Llosa or Jose Saramago novel and watch their chosen volume tumble down a chute like a can of fizzy drink.

The volumes are encased in tough plastic to prevent them being damaged by the fall, while the selection changes fortnightly.

The pilot project is aimed at impulse buyers and is intended to circumvent the bookshop environment that many Spaniards find so intimidating.

The initiative makes sense because the underground network is reckoned to be one of the places where people read the most. Eight machines have so far been installed in Barcelona stations. If successful, the scheme will be introduced nationwide and will include hospitals and petrol stations among the points of sale.