Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Hits Number One on Barnes & Noble.com's Bestseller List

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 21, 2004--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today announced that within the first hours of taking pre-orders for the new J.K Rowling book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the title has shot to the top of the Barnes & Noble.com's bestseller list.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will go on sale on Saturday, July 16, 2005. Barnes & Noble and Barnes & Noble.com are selling the book for 40 percent off the list price of $29.99. As with previous Harry Potter releases, Barnes & Noble stores nationwide will host events celebrating the publication the night before on Friday, July 15th, remaining open past 12:01AM, when the book officially goes on sale. Customers can place pre-orders at any Barnes & Noble store or at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com).

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 839 bookstores in 50 states. For the third year in a row, the company is the nation's top retail brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend(R) Brand Study by Harris Interactive(R). Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites and the number-one brand among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey. In addition to its retail operations, Barnes & Noble is one of the largest book publishers in the world. Its subsidiary, Sterling Publishing, publishes over 1,300 new titles a year and has an active list of over 6,000 titles.

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