And here in the physical world, down the old cowpath from my house, the brick-and-mortar reality of Barnes & Noble suggests otherwise, too. But the virtual reality of -the only Web retailer to achieve the sacred status of a "brand"-suggests otherwise. A more recent fear is that the computer's siren song is drowning out the author's voice. It has often been said that forty years of irradiation by the terrible blue light of TV has killed the yearning for the kind of light, book-light, that pulled me out to my car that night. And right across from the Mall, on the former site of a Howard Johnson's, stands a humongous Barnes & Noble, open late. ![]() On my mental map it's called Road to the Mall. I live off an old cowpath in a Boston suburb-a long, straight road that some people say is the route of Paul Revere's ride. Their spines accused me as I put on my coat and went out to the car. I had shelves of books all around me in my house, books piled on tables, books under the tables, books under the sofa and bed. But this particular night I wanted to give duty the slip and bathe myself in another kind of light, the magical, transforming light of an author's voice and mind. I like to work on mine before the world starts working on me, and most mornings I'm bathed in laptop light long before the paper guy hurls the Times and the Globe onto the porch. My wife and daughter had gone to bed, and I should have been in bed too, so that I could arise before dawn to write a book myself. It was a book I'd been meaning to read for years but had never bought, and I became convinced that if I could have that book that very night, and spend one or two quiet hours turning its pages, something important would be unleashed in my soul. ![]() ![]() One night recently, around 9 P.M., I had the overwhelming desire for a book. How a trip to the mall on a December night became a personal journey into e-publishing's not-so-distant past
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