My wife wants to rearrange our furniture (ie. buy a new, much larger, couch)
and I would like to put in a reading lamp where she proposes to put my
chair. There is no outlet, no possibility of running an extension cord, and
no possibility of installing a new outlet.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~toller/wall.jpg

If we had thought of it last year when new carpet was installed perhaps one
could have gone in the floor, but I am not messing with the carpet.

The fireplace has fans that pass room air over the fire box and back into
the room. We don't use it because the heat doesn't justify the noise. But,
it has 120v going to it.

Can replace the fan with an electrical box/outlet and plug the reading light
into that?
http://www.frontiernet.net/~toller/vent.jpg

I am sure it violates some code or other, but it seems about as safe as
anything; it is pretty darn fireproof in there.