...So how does America's last major bookstore chain hope to survive the plague that has already killed off Borders and nearly 500 independent bookstores since 2002? Simple, Lynch says. Enhance the reading experience.

"This company was built to be a terrific brick-and-mortar company, but we didn't have the competency in digital media," Lynch says. "For 30 years, it was about putting the next Barnes & Noble store in the next city in the next state. With the world changing, we had to find new ways to grow -- and that meant a non-book product."

Cue the NOOK, Barnes & Noble's answer to the wildly successful Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle; it also happens to be Lynch's baby. Nearly one-third of Americans now own an e-reader, and more than one-third of e-book buyers report decreased spending at national bookstore chains, according to the Book Industry Study Group...

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