Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are stopping by Barnes & Noble (the Union Square one) on Tuesday to read from their new book Influence, the coffee table book with photographs of the girls and "interviews with some of the most influential tastemakers in the world," like Mary-Kate. And Ashley.

Be there at 12:30pm sharp, sketch pad in hand.

Self-professed "huge exaggerator" David Sedaris believes that if his stories are 97 percent true, they're "true enough." That wasn't good enough for Barnes & Noble, which stocked his new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames in their fiction section. Onlookers might've seen it as B&N lumping Sedaris in there with the James Freys of the world. Except that wasn't their intent! A mixup with Nielsen Bookscan, which put Flames in the wrong category, is being blamed. All wrongs have been righted, and the purchasing public can now find Sedaris' book in the 97-percent non-fiction section. [NYO]D

How come the Chelsea Barnes & Noble, right down the street from Jossip HQ, had to close its doors after 14 years? Because the broker re-negotiating their lease "came in and put crazy numbers in [the landlors'] minds. We can’t pay those kinds of rents. We’ve been looking two, three years for a replacement. We have not been able to find a suitable location at rents that are affordable."

So what type of rents, exactly, did B&N's propery owners want? One rumor we were hearing before it was announced the location would close is $2 million per month.

Not that you'll actually miss the brick-and-mortar Barnes & Noble. Don't you people buy your books on Amazon.com like normal people?

Even after abandoning its half-moral stance not to sell If I Did It in bookstores, Barnes & Noble still isn’t doing well.

In April, Barnes & Noble did not renew the lease for its Astor Place location.

Now the chain that put everyone else out of business is closing its branch on 6th avenue and 21st street, which happens to be Jossip’s local B & N. Now where will we go to read the Gossip Girl series for free after work?

It was about a week ago that Barnes & Noble decided to take a stand against If I Did It, and not stock it in their book stores. The stand was a bit limited considering that BN.com would still carry the book.

So earlier this week, when If I Did It climbed to number one on the BN.com bestseller list, it seemed like time to reconsider that moral middle ground. Yesterday Barnes & Noble announced that it would shelve the book.

Barnes and Noble spokesman explained the change:

We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it.

So basically, “widespread customer outrage and disgust” turned out to be more like widespread customer interest and demand, and Barnes & Nobles wants to make some money.

400,000 – Number of copies ReganBooks had shipped before HarperCollins started feeling awkward about the whole project.

125,000 – Number of copies Beaufort Books began printing yesterday.

116,000 – Number of pre-orders for If I Did It.

0 – Number of copies that will be stocked at Barnes & Noble.

1 – If I Did It’s current position on the BN.com bestseller list.

The massive book retailer chain previously responsible for driving The Little Shop Around The Corner out of business (and establishing a mass-partnership with the most annoyingly expensive coffee chain of all time) has seemingly woken up on the self-righteous side of bed this morning.

In a surprising move, the unscrupulous corporate powerhouse—best known for jacking up the prices and selling $15 bookmarks—has announced that they won't be hocking copies of O.J.'s hypothetical double-homicide confession.

'Could it be?' we wondered. 'Has the evil book conglomerate suddenly developed a conscience? Are they truly putting the 'noble' back in 'Barnes and Noble?'

The answer, of course, was a resounding no.

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