It feels strange to be referencing The Age newspaper for something other than picking out ambiguities in its headlines, but there was an interesting article in today’s paper about an Espresso Book Machine being installed in the Angus & Robertson on Bourke Street in Melbourne.

Customers can use the machine to have a book of their choice–say an out of print or difficult to obtain title–printed, bound, and trimmed whilst they wait.

Given how difficult it can be to find certain books here (particularly when one doesn’t especially like the idea of paying ludicrous shipping rates), this could potentially be a really useful device.  The book chain cites needing to stay afloat in a market full of Amazons and so on as one of the reasons for implementing the machine.

The Bourke Street store is not far from me, so I might pop by on the weekend and have a look.