{"id":316630,"date":"2025-10-19T18:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T18:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/316630\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T18:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T18:40:11","slug":"book-vending-machines-at-two-railway-stations-in-city-pique-curiosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/316630\/","title":{"rendered":"Book vending machines at two railway stations in city pique curiosity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1x1_spacer.png\" alt=\"The book vending machine, which is the initiative of a 26-year-old literature graduate, at the MGR Central station.\" title=\"The book vending machine, which is the initiative of a 26-year-old literature graduate, at the MGR Central station.\" data-original=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1x1_spacer.png\" class=\"lead-img\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">\n                    The book vending machine, which is the initiative of a 26-year-old literature graduate, at the MGR Central station.<br \/>\n                                          | Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM\n                                      <\/p>\n<p>Two newly-installed vending machines \u2014 one on platform 6 of the Central railway station, and the other at the west entrance of Tambaram railway station \u2014 are not dispensing coffee, chips or cold drinks, but something more for your train journey. They catch the eye of a reader rushing past, for these dispense stories: fiction, non-fiction, and children\u2019s activity books.<\/p>\n<p>Book vending machines are no novelty \u2014 they are seen in Exeter, Tokyo, Changi, and other corners of the world, A few exist in India too, but Tamil Nadu witnesses its first, curated by 26-year-old literature graduate Mayawathi G.V.<\/p>\n<p>Holding 23 different titles and 200 books at a time, this perpetually open kiosk carries bestsellers of Khaled Hosseini, Evelyn Hugo, and English to Tamil translated books at a retail price and accepts UPI payment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBringing a book vending machine to Chennai has always been my dream, and here, trains and books go hand-in-hand. Southern Railways have been supportive throughout,\u201d Ms. Mayawathi said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe realise that reading habits are dipping in cities, and we need to do something about it. So far, children\u2019s activity\u00a0books have been selling well,\u201d she added. As books are also being bought past midnight, she plans to rotate titles and introduce genres to the tome trove.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know that thrill when you finish a book and want to suggest it to others? That\u2019s the feeling I had while curating the vending machine. But since readers can\u2019t linger over blurbs or browse through pages like they would in a bookstore, I loaded the machine with international bestsellers under \u20b9300,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate employees and bestfriends Jashwanth and Teja were at the Chennai Central when the book dispenser made the inquisitive travellers pause.\u00a0\u201cHonestly, we hadn\u2019t thought of carrying a book on a train journey, but this initiative is gently nudging us to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time-new\"> Published &#8211; October 19, 2025 11:59 pm IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The book vending machine, which is the initiative of a 26-year-old literature graduate, at the MGR Central station.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":316631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-316630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115402298467586009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}