Notes: B&N's Short Interest; Sarasota News & Books
Barnes & Noble shares fell 9.2% to $20.87 on Friday after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to "underperform." According to the AP, a Credit Suisse analyst wrote that B&N's purchase of Barnes & Noble College from B&N chairman Len Riggio (Shelf Awareness, August 11, 2009) "strategically makes little sense over time as the company essentially doubles its exposure to one of the segments [i.e., college text retailing] that we believe are most at risk to technology change over the next several years, as well as reduces the cash element of the Barnes & Noble story that has supported it for so long."
The Wall Street Journal had also criticized the deal on Thursday.
Barron's noted that many on Wall Street have a dim view of the company's short-term stock price: B&N has "the third-highest short-interest position--measured as a percentage of its float--on the New York Stock Exchange. Effectively, one-third of all shares out there have been allocated to investors betting the shares are likely to fall."
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Andrew and Meghan Foley, owners of Sarasota News & Books, Sarasota, Fla., told the Herald-Tribune that the shop "may close at the end of the month unless they can renegotiate their lease, a turn that shocked newbies and longtime patrons alike on Friday."
"We are still holding out hope that we can work something out," said Andrew. "The conversation is evolving right now. The details are evolving. We're working very hard today to have something happen that will change our current course."
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"Bound and determined: Independent, local bookstores provide a tangible niche in a digital world" was the headline for the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier's showcase of several area bookstores.
"You can read stories of people that know that we're not alone. Our fears, our joys are shared by other people," said Pat Giacinto, owner of Ravenous Reader, James Island, adding, "You are so bombarded by external forces and reading provides you a quiet time for yourself. And I think that Americans are losing the ability to power down. I think books can help provide that for you."
Cherry Collins, owner of Dreamalot Books, Goose Creek, observed that books are "a way to escape into a world you don't normally live in. Books are like any drug. If you asked a cocaine addict why they do it, they say they do it for the escape. Books are the same thing but legal and they don't hurt your health."
"We know when we've done our jobs when a local comes in with their visiting friends or family and says this is 'our' bookstore," said Linda Malcolm, owner of Indigo Books, John Island. "When they feel it is a part of their community and it's their bookstore, we're very grateful for that. That's the most rewarding, what keeps me going. It's just the people, our clients, are family."
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Storylines Bookstore & Cafe, Watkins Glen, N.Y., will close September 12 due to "health issues and time constraints" while owners Ann and Gene Mage seek a buyer, according to the Elmira Star-Gazette.
"We're still looking for someone to take over the business, especially the coffee shop because it's become such an integral part of Watkins Glen," Mage said.
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"What Is First Lady Michelle Obama Reading?" asked Oprah.com, which "scoured through photos and news clips--following Michelle Obama from elementary schools to Easter egg hunts--to discover the children's books she loves to read.
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A Russian telephone bidder acquired a rare signed copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf for £21,000 ($US34,740) at auction. BBC News reported that the book "was given by Hitler to a fellow prison inmate."
Mel Snow and Toby Warring marry in the Silver Bells All-Nite Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, only two days after meeting in a dusty saloon in the "five-minute" town of Tonopah. Mel had initially imagined a brief respite from the solitude of her life as a textile consultant for hotels and restaurants but was entranced by Toby, a magician, and not just any magician, she discovers, but a real magician who creates rose petals in Mel's hands, refills her wineglass from his palm, changes the poppies on her dress to snowflakes. They both long for connection, she says: "It was a way to end the procession of lonely roads and empty hotel rooms. For Toby, it was way to conjure something permanent into his too-malleable world and perhaps, I wondered, to replace someone he'd made vanish. For me, maybe it was a way to fill the hole torn by my brother's defection."