We need to sell 10 books a day from every machine to make them profitable. Vending machines aren't going to outshine traditional bookshops.

Our biggest vending machine sellers are The Wok Cookbook and a French-English dictionary.

We knew that French bibliophiles would be horrified to see their books falling into a trough like candy or soda. So we installed a mechanical arm that grabs the book and delivers it safely.

People have cravings for literature just as they do for bars of chocolate, fizzy drinks or all the other things you can now buy from machines. These vendors mean it's as if our stores were open 24 hours a day.

I am struck by a realization: a computer will perform a takeoff or landing with all the grace of a person. It is only for combat—only for the artristy of ruin—that these vessels have pilot seats at all anyome. There is something in humanity more suited to the mechanics of murder than any machine yet devised.

At this point I came across one of the vending machines that only Japan has. I have to admit that I love the whimsical items sold in such appliances, like all sorts of junk food, beer cans, whisky bottles and even underwear. This particular machine sold both whisky and underwear, which truly is a bizarre combination, or maybe not, considering all the underwear were female panties. It was therefore my theory that older men would come by and buy the whisky, and then when they were drunk and young women passed by, the men would then offer them panties as gifts for sexual favours. Ya, it all made perfect sense to me.