Vending machines filled with books are being installed in schools, public spaces across the U.S.

A student looks at a vending machine filled with books.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/WBIR)

Instead of getting a soda or candy bars out of the vending machine, students at Clinton Middle School in Tennessee are getting books.

Academic coach April Meyers had the special vending machine installed in the cafeteria, with books costing only $1; the money raised will go toward buying new titles. "We just hope it will spark a little more interest in reading for some students who maybe don't have the opportunity to go to the bookstore and choose their own book to keep," Meyers told WVLT. "It will just excite them about reading and increase some of our literacy here." Eighth grader Hazel Hensley said she's "around a bunch of bookworms," and expects the vending machine to be very popular.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.