The chief executive of Barnes & Noble scoffs at any negative thoughts about the book industry, telling the New York Times that "reports of the book industry's demise have been greatly exaggerated over the last 20 years. And they've been unsupported by any sound research. The fact is the industry has never had a single year of sales decline. It's a stable business and it's resilient in the face of competition for people's time from TV, Internet and video games."

Of course, when Riggio is asked about the future, he's certainly blockbuster-driven in his predictions: "If we look out over the next two or three years, we will see another book from Dan Brown. We will see the last book in the "Harry Potter" series. And we will see many books revolving around the 2008 presidential election."

Not exactly going against the grain, is he...