"The Power of Reading" by Daniel Wallace

The old man’s store piled books everywhere. On those weighed-down shelves dusty gems hid: a novel that exposed every human failing, a handwritten dictionary of infallible seductions, and a picture-book of leopards that, if opened at night, would turn its reader into a leopard. But I never stepped inside, even though I lived five minutes away, and the store soon vanished the way all magical places do: first sale notices, then a packing truck, then boarded windows. One cold evening I came by alone, wearing gloves.

Through a missing pane, I reached for the only book remaining on the abandoned floor—a tattered Tom Clancy thriller. I slid it under my bed, waiting for my transformation to begin. sixsentences.blogspot.com