Ah, the good old Barnes and Nobles. In those late 90s, early 2000s, B&N used to be a cool place for book lovers to chill out at. People kept raving about Borders later on, but B&N always had the better atmosphere.

One thing that never made sense - how these companies stayed in business.

Thinking back, I think these stores were never intended to be profitable, just Cabal experimenting with ways to accumulate and people and get rid of independant book shops, esp second hand book shops.

When they found better methods, these were just allowed to disappear.

Thinking that there could be something sinister behind these book chains is kinda sad, but not out of the realm of possibilities. (I am not referring to the Marina Abramovic link per se, but just that the whole operation seems very Cabal-like)

Reading books is very old school. Sadly. The general education of the US population proves this fact.