More jolting news about Barnes & Noble in New York. Due to a whopping rent increase, its popular Upper West Side megastore on West 66th Street is closing its doors at the end of January 2011. The four-story store has been a neighborhood fixture since opening in 1995, a space where celebrity authors held book signings and book readings for Lincoln Center visitors. It also houses a cafe and a music section, one of the few remaining bricks-and-mortar locations selling CDs and DVDs in New York, with the closings of Tower Records and Virgin Megastores over the last few years. Even non-book buyers are sad to see the location closing.

Meanwhile, billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle is locked in a dispute for control of Barnes & Noble, whose shareholders believe he is unfit to serve on its board.