Last week*, I read the disturbing news that, after a “tumultuous year,” Barnes & Noble is being sold to a Hedge Fund company. I have such mixed reactions to this announcement. I’m thankful the book seller will stay open, but I really wonder what a hedge fund will know about selling – really, loving — books.

Having grown up in a rural area with few nearby neighbors, books were often my companions.Through them, I traveled time and geography, met new “friends,” and got to solve problems, murder and mayhem from a safe distance. The right kind of book can even give you an emotional hug. What can’t a book do?

I still think about Rochester’s Village Green. It may be due to nostalgia, but I recall it as being one of the most charming bookshops I’ve encountered. It was located on Monroe Avenue near one of the apartments I lived in following college. There was magic in the air when you walked into that book store, almost as if the hum of all the authors’s words whose work adorned the shelves danced about the shop. The photo above was taken at the Village Green, but doesn’t begin to capture the magic.

Times have changed. Self-publishing, online sales, audio books, blogs, social media, the demise of newspapers and magazines, and electronic delivery of words have all taken a bite out of bookselling. The booksellers who do stay open must find ways to  continually create magic for their patrons, even beyond the books themselves. Today’s publishers have to be ever more selective and booksellers must be ultra-conscious of budget.

I really hope the new hedge fund managers manage to find a way to make money and magic mix.

Originally written and published in the June 13 issue of Beyond the Nest’s free weekly newsletter.