Creating a book is one thing; selling is something completely different. Gutenberg was both printer and publisher, as was Aldus, Plantin, Caxton and almost all the early printers. In the 1600s, book publishing, bookmaking, and bookselling diverged.

As a kid I haunted libraries because the books were free and during the 1950s I latched on to paperbacks. Most of the content consisted of the classics because they were in the public domain. Thus I read the classics only because they were twenty-five cents. I bought those paperbacks from a metal rack at the corner Rexall or took the subway to Greenwich Village to visit Paperback Book Smith, a bookstore just for paperbacks. Jean Shepard always mentioned them during his radio show.

At Brooklyn College I bought my used textbooks from the original Barnes & Noble on 5th Avenue. One used textbook for a course had every line on every page highlighted. To visit a proper bookstore meant a trip to Manhattan for Doubleday or Rizzoli who were uptown or stroll the many bookstores on 4th Avenue.

When I got my first job I spent money on books. I joined the Book of the Month Club and Doubleday Book Club and loved opening the mail to embrace that monthly hardcover book. Soon bookstores were popping up everywhere, owned and run by colorful proprietors. That's when our family decided to open a bookstore just for mystery novels. The process was facilitated by the wonderful people at Ingram.

At the same time the seeds were sown for the book superstores. It was not so much their extensive inventory that was a concern, but their discounting. Books are sold to the retailer at a 40 percent discount and it is hard to exist on margins less than that. So when Barnes & Noble came to town, the 15-year run of our mystery novel bookstore came to an end, and some of the family went to work for B&N. The ABA had sent us a letter congratulating us on reaching 15 years. It was bittersweet. Borders, Lauriats, and Books A Million became familiar at shopping malls and large free-standing stores.

I worked with publishers and printers on how to typeset books with new technology as we phased from hot metal to phototypesetting, desktop publishing, and then on-demand printing. As the world of bookmaking changed so did the world of bookselling. Just as the superstores killed off most of the independents, so the online bookstores are killing off the superstores. There was a gigantic B&N at Jack London Square in Oakland, CA. I was there a while ago and it is shuttered and silent.

We are being forced to buy from online bookstores. The guilty pleasure of fingering books will be replaced with mousing books.

I met Dr Joe in Providence, RI recently and we passed a Boders store that was selling off its inventory. That bookstore will not be replaced. Returning to Boston, I looked around the train and at that moment almost everyone had a Kindle or iPad or cell phone in front of their face.

Now we are into the age of the electronic book and our bookstore is the screen. Our book is the screen and the screen is the book. There is a war between the publishers and the "middle men," the online retailers. To find books I may have to go to several websites instead visiting one online bookstore. But even more than all that, I contend that the era of cheap books is over. Even e-books that eschew print and paper and shipping are overpriced.

Literacy and books built this nation. Literacy and books can renew this nation. But not at $14 for an e-book that you never own or can move to a different electronic device. Eventually the only bookstores will be the ones for old books . . . which people will buy and cherish.