Barnes & Noble shares are soaring after it announced that it was up for sale and may even go private, or merge with Borders.

From Reuters:

Barnes & Noble, the No. 1 U.S. book store chain, said on Tuesday that company founder and top shareholder Leonard Riggio is considering bidding for the company as part of a larger investor group.

An auction of Barnes & Noble could draw interest from several prominent investors, such as billionaire Ron Burkle, and could raise speculation about a combination with smaller rival Borders Group Inc (BGP.N). Borders shares jumped 5.3 percent on Wednesday.

The consensus in the market is that e-books are the wave of the future and that B&N was late to the party.

I’m a big reader, but the whole e-book thing doesn’t really work for me because I just don’t buy that many books. If I’m not sure I’ll like something, I get it from the library. What about you? Are you an e-book convert?

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