For better or worse, Amazon.com is the future of Seattle. Even the most strident anti-Amazon protester—an independent bookseller, say—has to admit that if Amazon were to suddenly go out of business, Seattle would be flushed down the economic toilet. Bloomberg Businessweek senior author Brad Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon contextualizes the online retailer with information garnered from his exclusive access inside the company. After Stone’s reading, I’ll be hosting a roundtable discussion about Amazon, Stone’s book, and what it all means for Seattle. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, townhallseattle.org, 7:30 pm, $5)