So Barnes & Noble beat the spread in the fourth quarter of 2005...and, technically, so did its major competitor, though the Borders prognosis was still downbeat. See, even though Borders was able to make three cents more per share than the Street expected, the fact that it has fewer shares than it did in 2004's Q4 meant that its profits were actually down by a little more than 3 percent even as sales rose by 6 percent. B&N, meanwhile, which actually earned two cents less per share than Borders during the quarter, was able to increase its profits by 6.3 percent along with a 5 percent increase in sales revenue, so the market was showing it some serious love yesterday. I mean serious love, people.