The Book Store’s Last Stand?

Is Barnes & Noble, as the New York Times says,  the only thing “standing between traditional publishers and oblivion”? Given our family affinity for Strand Books, I have a vested interest in saying no. Even so, remember when B&N was the corporate bad guy? Publishers can still make money by selling e-books. What can’t are independent book stores.

Read Julie Bosman’s story in The New York Times:

“No one expects Barnes & Noble to disappear overnight. The worry is that it might slowly wither as more readers embrace e-books. What if all those store shelves vanished, and Barnes & Noble became little more than a cafe and a digital connection point? Such fears came to the fore in early January, when the company projected that it would lose even more money this year than Wall Street had expected. Its share price promptly tumbled 17 percent that day.”