The chief executive of Barnes & Noble truly believes that the chain will be closing only some of its brick-and-mortar bookstores in the next decade. In other news, Atlantis is thinking of scaling down its island. You know, just a little here and there. Wow, denial is a bitch. From WSJ:

Barnes & Noble Inc. expects to close as many as a third of its retail stores over the next decade, the bookseller’s top store executive said, offering the most detailed picture yet of the company’s plans for the outlets.

“In 10 years we’ll have 450 to 500 stores,” said Mitchell Klipper, chief executive of Barnes & Noble’s retail group, in an interview last week. The company operated 689 retail stores as of Jan. 23, along with a separate chain of 674 college stores.•