Sir Allen Lane is the creator of Penguin Books, which is credited with popularizing high-quality mass-market paperbacks. Paperbacks existed prior to Penguin, but they were often poorly made and/or had trashy subject matter. Lane changed all that, publishing classic literature in paperback form and legitimizing the paperback and offering an affordable price (sixpence per book at launch; or about the same as a pack of cigarettes). But he didn’t stop there. He also invented the “Penguincubator,” a vending machine for his paperbacks. In 1937.
From an article in Publishing Perspectives:
[Lane's] Penguincubator [was] first installed outside Henderson’s (the “Bomb Shop”) at 66 Charing Cross Road, which signaled his intention to take the book beyond the library and the traditional bookstore, into railway stations, chain stores and onto the streets. It is worth noting, given publishers’ frequent timidity in this area, that this really annoyed booksellers. (Lane’s lack of trepidation is an important part of this story; worth noting, too, that he was the first English publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses, at the Bodley Head, despite the widespread contemporary fear of prosecution for obscenity.)
In the Penguincubator we see several desires converge: affordable books, non-traditional distribution, awareness of context, and a quiet radicalism. And it’s not a huge leap of the imagination to see how these apply now. I see the same bored gaze on the bus and tube today, as people reflexively flip open their phones and start poking at email or casual games, as Allen Lane saw on the platform at Exeter in 1933. And slowly — oh, so slowly — publishers are seeing that what we are presented with is not the death of everything we trust, value and hold dear, but a similar widening vista of opportunity to that which arrived with the mass-market paperback.
Lane’s story about why he invented the Penguincubator is fun. From Penguin’s Company History page:
After a weekend visiting Agatha Christie in Devon, he found himself on a platform at Exeter station searching its bookstall for something to read on his journey back to London, but discovered only popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels.
Appalled by the selection on offer, Lane decided that good quality contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores.
Hence the Penguincubator. While the Penguincubator is no longer operational, the New York Times’ Paper Cuts blog found an operating paperback vending machine in a Barcelona subway station. Have you seen a paperback vending machine? Would you buy from a Penguincubator if one were installed in your area?
(Story via BBC News; photo by STML on Flickr; another photo is here — the later-model Penguincubator is on the right.)
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I’ve never seen one, but would love to have some close to my office. Our local library branch carries mostly Spanish books, and I’d really like to have stuff to read at work.
posted by Tinkerschnitzel on 8-9-2010 at 1:29 pm
Sorry, a vending machine of this nature has been made seriously outdated to me by my Kindle!
posted by Gordon Daily on 8-9-2010 at 1:48 pm
I saw a bunch of book vending machines at the Gatwick airport 3 years ago. They were mostly filled with Dan Brown books.
posted by Rachel H on 8-9-2010 at 1:56 pm
I would love one of those!
posted by Rachel on 8-9-2010 at 2:18 pm
We have library vending machines out in the country, at the local recreation centre. It’s to fill the gap of not having a B&M library in those small communities, but they are still part of the city-wide library system, so it serves to augment the bookmobile.
We need more of those I think, not just for out in the sticks either.
Added a link to the story in our paper for anybody whose interested.
posted by Kristina the bureaucrat on 8-9-2010 at 2:52 pm
I don’t think I would use it regularly at most places, but there are a few places where I could see it totally coming in handy like at the airport or in the hotel lobby or at the DMV, the kind of places where you easily end up hanging out kind of stranded and bored.
I think a similar machine with magazines would do a booming business. I’m a bit choosier about what I want to buy and read with a whole book (and most of the time not going to be a stranded captive audience long enough to need a whole book. However, magazines are a perfect length for even short times of boredom and the kind of thing that can be a bit of an impulse purchase.
posted by Melissa on 8-9-2010 at 3:33 pm
When I lived in Dongducheon S. Korea, a few years ago, there were book vending machines in almost every subway station.
posted by Jordan on 8-10-2010 at 4:25 am
I live in South Korea and there are book vending machines all over the place. Pretty much every subway station in Seoul will have one or two, not nearly as vintage-cool looking ad the penguincubator though.
posted by CoryKorea on 8-10-2010 at 5:12 am
I agree with Melissa; there’s definitely a market for them in hotels, airports and the DMV.
However, Gordon Daily makes a good point that his Kindle renders a book vending machine outdated. I have the Kindle app on my iPhone, with plenty of books I have yet to read downloaded, so I’m always entertained.
posted by Amy D on 8-10-2010 at 10:00 am
Love the idea! I have not the money for a Kindle and hesitate to buy one–I would miss the “feel” of holding an actual book. But someday may change my mind. Anyhoo–a book vending machine is a super idea! At touristy places, convention places, hotel lobbies…anywhere someone has time on their hands. What better way to waste time!? :) And a puzzle book vending machine for kids as well. It is hard to keep kids entertained in waiting areas.
posted by Diane on 8-10-2010 at 10:25 am
I would love this!
I live in Northern Japan and they have vending machines for almost everything (except books)
You can buy a new Speedo from a vending machine at the pool. Eggs and Milk from vending machines by the side of the road. And my personal favorite: Vending Machines that sell ICE CREAM!
posted by Emily in Japan on 8-10-2010 at 10:42 pm