{"id":54477,"date":"2013-06-14T09:30:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T13:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=54477"},"modified":"2013-06-14T11:27:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T15:27:37","slug":"a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/","title":{"rendered":"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\" alt=\"bookvending\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-54478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending-300x232.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<li>A California library introduces a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/sunnyvale\/ci_23447675\/sunnyvale-countys-first-library-vending-machine-serves-books\" target=\"_blank\"> children\u2019s book vending machine<\/a>!<\/li>\n<li>The perfect number of children for literary success: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/gallery\/2013\/jun\/13\/perfect-number-children-literary-success-pictures\" target=\"_blank\">a slideshow<\/a>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>As dirt goes, this seems pretty tame, but: it seems <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2013\/06\/13\/new-cia-2-pick-used-to-read-anne-rice-aloud-at-her-bookstore-s-erotica-night.html\" target=\"_blank\">Avril Danica Haines<\/a>, nominated as CIA number two, used to read Anne Rice (or should we say, A.&thinsp;N. Roquelaure?) aloud at her bookstore\u2019s erotica night.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cGrammar cops are rarely good writers. Imagination always disobeys.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/galleycat\/sherman-alexie-grammar-cops-are-rarely-good-writers_b72198\" target=\"_blank\">Sherman Alexie<\/a> starts a Tweet storm. <\/li>\n<li>We have mentioned Japan&#8217;s book towers, or <em>tawaa tsumi<\/em>, before. But I think we can agree that we all need to see <a href=\"http:\/\/kotaku.com\/the-truth-about-japans-amazing-book-towers-513063542\" target=\"_blank\">more<\/a>. (Even if the trend has been exaggerated.)\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this seems pretty tame, but: it seems Avril Danica Haines, nominated as CIA number two, used to read Anne Rice (or should we say, A.&thinsp;N. Roquelaure?) aloud at her bookstore\u2019s erotica night. \u201cGrammar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2512],"tags":[11121,10334,11120,11119,11072,7924,231,11122,11118],"class_list":["post-54477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-the-shelf","tag-a-n-roquelaure","tag-anne-rice","tag-avril-danica-haines","tag-book-towers","tag-cia","tag-erotica","tag-grammar","tag-sherman-alexie","tag-tawaa-tsumi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Book Vending Machine, and Other News by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 14, 2013 \u2013 A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 14, 2013 \u2013 A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-14T13:30:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-14T15:27:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-14T13:30:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-14T15:27:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\"},\"wordCount\":112,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"A.N. Roquelaure\",\"Anne Rice\",\"Avril Danica Haines\",\"book towers\",\"CIA\",\"erotica\",\"grammar\",\"Sherman Alexie\",\"tawaa tsumi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On the Shelf\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\",\"name\":\"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-14T13:30:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-14T15:27:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"June 14, 2013 \u2013 A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News by Sadie Stein","description":"June 14, 2013 \u2013 A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News by Sadie Stein","og_description":"June 14, 2013 \u2013 A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-06-14T13:30:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-06-14T15:27:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":465,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News","datePublished":"2013-06-14T13:30:36+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-14T15:27:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/"},"wordCount":112,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg","keywords":["A.N. Roquelaure","Anne Rice","Avril Danica Haines","book towers","CIA","erotica","grammar","Sherman Alexie","tawaa tsumi"],"articleSection":["On the Shelf"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/","name":"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg","datePublished":"2013-06-14T13:30:36+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-14T15:27:37+00:00","description":"June 14, 2013 \u2013 A California library introduces a children\u2019s book vending machine! The perfect number of children for literary success: a slideshow.\u00a0 As dirt goes, this","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bookvending.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/a-book-vending-machine-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Book Vending Machine, and Other News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54477"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54484,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54477\/revisions\/54484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}