__NOTOC__ The Biblio-Mat is a random antiquarian book

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise m ...

located at

The Monkey's Paw "The Monkey's Paw" is a Horror fiction, horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs. It first appeared in ''Harper's Monthly'' in September, 1902, and was reprinted in his third collection of short stories, ''The Lady of the Barge'', late ...

bookstore in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

Origin

Stephen Fowler, owner of The Monkey's Paw, and his friend Craig Small conceived of the Biblio-Mat in 2012. Fowler, looking for ways to attract customers to his shop’s booth at an upcoming street fair, shared with Small his idea of painting a large cardboard box to look like a vending machine, inside of which an assistant would drop an old random book out of a slot in exchange for a coin. Small loved the idea, but proposed creating a real mechanized vending machine instead. The Biblio-Mat was installed at The Monkey’s Paw in November of 2012. The original price to vend a book was CDN$2. In 2022, the price was increased to $5.

Design

The Biblio-Mat was inspired by vending machines from the 1940s and 50s and was designed to complement the existing aesthetic of The Monkey's Paw bookshop. The machine's shell, made from a salvaged steel office storage locker, is painted pistachio-green at its base and ivory white on top. It features chrome accents and vintage lettering.

Random delivery system

The insertion of a coin or token prompts the Biblio-Mat's

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...

to randomly select a book from one of three vertical stacks and triggers an antique

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bell that rings upon delivery. The Biblio-Mat has been referred to as a “

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machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

." Small said, in an interview with

CTV News CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the nationa ...

: "You don't choose the book, the universe chooses it for you."

Reception

Upon its launch, The Biblio-Mat attracted attention from international media outlets as well as thousands of

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and specialty publications. Authors

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

, and

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

are admirers of the Biblio-Mat.

Influence

The Biblio-Mat consistently appears on lists of top Toronto attractions and is often cited as a reason people visit the city. “People use the machine every day, people come visit us from all over the place,” Fowler told

Global News Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as ...

in 2018. “Sometimes it feels like the thing is just running non-stop all day long.” The website

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professiona ...

has listed the Biblio-Mat as number one among “Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Toronto.” In 2021, the musician

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975) is an American musician who achieved international fame as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. As the White Stripes disbanded, he sought success with his solo career, subse ...

, a Biblio-Mat fan, commissioned Small to build a random book machine for the third location of his

Third Man Records Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell, and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Detroit, and Soho in London—with multiple entitie ...

store in the

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

district of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The machine, called The Literarium, dispenses random literature from White's publishing company, Third Man Books. The Biblio-Mat is cited in books about the book trade, including ''Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany'' (2018) and ''The Bookseller's Tale'' (2020).

Notable uses

People have used the machine to propose marriage on at least two occasions. In 2013, a Monkey's Paw customer named Vincent Lui used the Biblio-Mat once a week for a year and wrote a review of every book it dispensed. Lui's project was celebrated during Biblio-Mat Fanatic Day. In 2018, the Biblio-Mat was featured on an episode of ''

The Amazing Race Canada ''The Amazing Race Canada'' is a Canadian reality competition show based on the American series ''The Amazing Race''. Following the premise of other versions in the ''Amazing Race'' franchise, the show follows teams of two as they race across C ...

''.{{Cite web , date=2018-08-09 , title=Twitter: The Amazing Race Canada on CTV. It's #BookLoversDay! LIKE if you're reading an AMAZING book! , url=https://twitter.com/amazingracecda/status/1027561072423825409 , access-date=2022-04-03 , website=Twitter , language=en

References

Vending machines Antiquarian booksellers Bookselling Inventions