Whether it’s a family event, work, a date or a Friday night out with friends, we bookworms never leave home without our latest reading material in our bags. Of course, this is made a little more difficult if the book is 800 pages long and weighs two kilos.
So I don’t need to tell you how excited I was when I first heard about the POKET pocketbook project. The POKET team has already installed 30 pocket book vending machines in the busiest locations in the country as part of the project, which was the brainchild of Miklós H. Vecsei. The machines work just like any other vending machine for food, drinks or coffee. The first time I saw one was during a holiday in Eger, although I already knew about the project. Many classics from world literature are included in the collection, in the form of small, colourful booklets the size of a smartphone. Until I held my own pocket-sized Little Prince in my hands, I couldn’t imagine how the font size would be legible without leaving out significant parts of the story. I was disappointed in a positive way. Slightly adapted, shortened by one or two sentences, but besides being practical, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s world-famous novel was also perfectly readable and enjoyable.
Although the nearest vending machines are located in Budapest and Székesfehérvár, the webshop is accessible to all interested parties and orders are delivered by the Hungarian Post within 5-7 days.
In addition to world literature classics, you can buy poetry anthologies, literary themed T-shirts, masks and washable tattoos. My current favourite is the year planner, now in its second year, this year entitled One Year – Infinite What. In 2022, the owners of this special pocket calendar will be accompanied by the works of the hugely popular poet and translator Ákos Fodor, who is by the way also the most famous master of Hungarian haiku.
Every literary fan will find something to their liking among the Poket books, and the books in all the colours of the rainbow will be a welcome decoration in the home