You know that when I write that I’m less than sanguine about the chances of Barnes & Noble or any brick-and-mortar bookstore chain that I’m talking what I think is happening and not what I wish were happening, right? There are great advantages to e-readers, but I would love to see physical stores thrive. I just don’t see how that occurs. But not everybody is as dour as I am. From Julie Bosman in the New York Times:

“John Tinker, an analyst for the Maxim Group, said the retail stores were still an attractive property, something that had been obscured by missteps from the digital division. Mr. Lynch, who came to Barnes & Noble with a background in technology and e-commerce rather than book-selling, spent most of his time focused on the digital side of the company. Mr. Riggio has expressed support of the Nook business to employees, but has always devoted his energies to old-fashioned retail book-selling.

“The huge losses and the huge noise on the Nook side are masking a very interesting business on the retail side,’ Mr. Tinker said. ‘If there’s one thing that Riggio is good at, it’s running stores.'”