This is not the first time this has happened:

Barnes & Noble just unceremoniously ousted Ronald Boire as CEO, saying that the board has deemed him “not a good fit for the organization and that it was in the best interests of all parties for him to leave the Company.”

Boire was at the top of the chain book retailer for less than a year. This puts longtime Barnes & Noble leader Leonard Riggio back in charge of the chain that he founded in 1965 and has led, on-and-off, ever since. Riggio was set to retire next month, which makes him yet another victim of retirony.

Will Barnes & Noble ever find someone to lead it into the future? Or will Riggio have to permanently postpone his retirement in order to keep the retailer on life support? Barnes & Noble's demise would create a depressing number of brick-and-mortar "bookstore deserts" in rural and suburban parts of America; the cultural stakes are way too high. At this point, even most independent booksellers I know are cheering on Barnes & Noble's continuing survival. Let's hope they figure it out.