Inside Amazon Books

Is real the new virtual? With that question in mind, I went undercover last month to reviewAmazon’s Seattle bookshop, the first inwhat’sshaping up to be a national chain, forMIT Technology Review.Here’smy report.

It begins:

As I pull my phone from my pocket and start snapping pictures, I feel like a private eye, or even a secret agent. I’ve just walked into Amazon Books, the web giant’s flagship bricks-and-mortar bookstore in Seattle, but my intentions have little to do with shopping. I’m on...