Tomorrow evening, I’m doing a reading at THE BOOKSTORE in Gloucester, Mass.

It is, along with a handful of other nearby independent bookstores (Toad Hall in Rockport, Newtonville Books, Brookline Booksmith) a place that I love for the way it supports authors and readers.

I just finished a book on my Kindle, a device that is perfectly lovely on an airplane, but has a couple of big problems. The first is that I can’t tell where I am in the text (table of contents not so helpful in many novels) which is very disorienting. Like not knowing what time it is, as friend and writer Steve McCauley put it.

But e-books also lack the face-to-face association of a book that was purchased in a particular bookstore, from a human being that I know and like. It adds another mysterious and delightful layer to the pleasure of a book.

Please support your local independent bookstore. I cannot imagine life without such islands of sanity, good cheer, and really nice people.