I Love This Idea

Then again, I’m a snobby traitorous liberal who vaguely smells of musty old books:

Stockholm is to introduce library book dispensers on the city's underground rail system to encourage commuters to read.

Automatic book dispensers are to be installed on station platforms, starting with test machines at Liljeholmen, T-Centralen and Gullmarsplan.

Commuters will be able to stick their library card into the 'bookomatic' and choose from up to 700 titles, reports Svenska Dagbladet.

Martin Hafström, a spokesman for the City Library, said the idea was to reach out to people who don't normally read books.

He said: "We want to expand interest both in reading and in literature in general. I think that this is an interesting experiment, since Stockholm has the country's biggest public transport network."

This is as good as France’s idea of putting books in vending machines, to be purchased for under $3. Frankly, I just love any concept that encourages people to read.

Chicago’s One Book, One Chicago program (intro) is pretty good, but I don’t think it gets enough attention—and enough free copies of the books aren’t available. If they could combine the program with something like the Swedish bookomatics, that would be great. No doubt there are plenty of impoverished school systems who would be happy to accept donations of slightly used books like To Kill a Mockingbird when Chicago’s through with them.