Launched in London today the Espresso Book Machine is billed as the biggest thing to hit the book world since Gutenberg invented the printing press, writes Alison Flood in the Guardian. Installed at the Charing Cross branch of Blackwell’s in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes and currently offers access to close to 500 000 titles so no longer can the words “out of print” dash the hopes of eager bookworms. 

Described as an ATM for books by its distributors On Demand Books , the machine was the star of the recent London Book Fair and cost the UK store only $175 000 to install. It’s not the world’s first however as their are already Espresso machines  in the US, Canada and Australia, and in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. Will they be making their way to our shores? Who knows. For now we’ll just have to wait and see if as Phill Jamieson, Blackwell head of marketing believes, “It has the potential to be the biggest change since Gutenberg and we certainly hope it will be. And it’s not just for us – it gives the ability to small independent bookshops to compete with anybody.”

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