Monkey's Paw Biblio-Mat

The Monkey's Paw used bookstore in Toronto, created a Biblio-Mat vending machine to dispense at random books which used to go into their dollar bin. NPR aired a story about the Biblio-Mat on their November 18, 2012 broadcast.

Not quite the way I want to get books. I think back many years to a throw-away passage in a story in Playboy magazine. The story, as I remember it, was told in the first person and described an adventure driving in the Mid-East in a Phaeton touring car during the 1930's. Being in Playboy the narrator stayed in a house with several nubile daughters with whom he slept. However because they made love in pitch darkness he couldn't tell with whom he had indulged. At one point he gives the woman a little nip on the neck so he will be able to identify his partner. The next day each of the women weas a scarf.

The big surprise of the story hits after he has left the house when he learns that there is a daughter who is kept hidden because of some disease or disfigurement.

The reason I remember the story has nothing to do with the sex, but what occupied the backseat of the car: a crate or two of books. When the car broke down, something which would be expected with some regularity, he would reach back, pick any book at random and head for a comfortable place to wait and read until assistance materialized.

This fits into the profile of the men in my family: Give us a comfortable place to read and we're content. When heading off to where we might have to wait, we pack reading material. Reading makes the DMV experience almost painless. (Padding the benches would make it painless.)