Nick Hornby + Josh Rouse "Upstairs at the Square" October 16, 2007

NEW YORK, NY (October 1, 2007) -- Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced the next event in its new series, “Upstairs at the Square,” held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square). On Tuesday, October 16, at 7pm, bestselling British author Nick Hornby, whose new book is Slam (Penguin, October) and his friend, singer-songwriter on-the-rise Josh Rouse, whose latest album is Country House, City Mouse (released on his own Bedroom Classics label), discuss and perform their work. Journalist Katherine Lanpher hosts the program. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Nick Hornby (nickhornby.co.uk) is the author of the novels How to Be Good, High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down, as well as the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the editor of the short story collection Speaking with the Angel. The recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award for 1999 as well as the 2003 Orange Word International Writers’ London Award, he lives in North London. His new novel, Slam, is about teenagers and written with a slightly younger readership in mind but have no doubt it's vintage Hornby: funny, humane, touching and unfathomably spot-on.

Country Mouse, City House is Josh Rouse’s (joshrouse.com) seventh full-length album, recorded over six days in Spain. The album explores themes of death, isolation, nature, religion, and dreaming, and expands upon his trademark “70s singer/songwriter” sound. Says Rouse, “That's my favorite style of music, so that's what I do. I, and many of the people I work with, am obsessed with the sound and production of the 60's and 70's. Put simply, it just has something that a lot of modern records don't have.” Since starting his own label, Bedroom Classics, two years ago, he’s released Subtitulo and two EP projects (Bedroom Classics, Vol. 2 and She's Spanish, I'm American, a project with Paz Suay).

October’s edition of “Upstairs at the Square” also highlights Barnes & Noble’s new SundayMusic® CD series, released in conjunction with bigHelium Records. SundayMusic®, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, are available exclusively at Barnes & Noble stores and on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com). SundayMusic® is a tastemaker series, designed to introduce sophisticated adults to sophisticated music from unique artists that might otherwise go undiscovered. Josh Rouse appears on Vol. 1 of the series, with fellow luminaries such as Rufus Wainwright, Imogen Heap, Sweden’s Loney, Dear and others.

Katherine Lanpher is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press recently published her first book, Leap Days.

This summer, “Upstairs at the Square” celebrated a year of truly innovative cultural programming, having paired authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Paul Auster, David Lynch, Anna Gavalda, Armistead Maupin, and Gary Shteyngart with musicians including The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, Badly Drawn Boy, Duncan Sheik and members of the cast of Spring Awakening, Sondre Lerche, Au Revoir Simone, Aidan Moffat, Elk City and more. A full archive of recordings of all thirteen previous events is available on Barnes & Noble.com (bn.com/upstairs), where “Upstairs at the Square” is enjoyed by listeners around the world in addition to its live audiences.


About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 793 bookstores in 50 states. For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation’s top bookseller brand, as determined by a brand’s overall strength based on its combination of familiarity, quality and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.


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Official Website: http://www.bn.com/upstairs