Barnes & Noble Sold. Now what?

I love bookstores. Maybe even more than I love books (maybe).

The smell is intoxicating and invites me to sit in a comfy chair, crack a book and read until someone kicks me out. If it has a coffee bar, even better.

My favorite one was Poor Richards in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A glass of wine and browsing books? Oh yeah, I’m in.

While I’m a bigger fan of small, independent bookstores, I’ll never drive passed a Barnes & Noble without stopping. So when the news came out in the spring, I got curious.

A hedge fund bought Barnes & Noble for a rocking $638 million.

I’m holding out hope they can save the big guy. If you know anything about hedge funds, they don’t buy things to justlet them go under. They buy them to flip them. That’s where the bookstore whisperer James Daunt comes in.

The guy who turned around Britain’s Waterstone’s bookstore chain has been tapped to do the same at B&N. In an interview with the Wharton School of Business Daunt said, “The Barnes & Noble stores look tired and need a little botox. I think bookshops must have a personality.”