Does Apple Want to Buy Barnes & Noble?

Are Apple executives weighing a possible bid to buy Barnes & Noble? That's the rumor reported to Boy Genius Report by an as yet "unproven" source.

Apple presumably then would fold the Barnes & Noble digital library of books and publication into Apple’s own iBooks store.

Apple would have no use for the Nook, and that would likely be discontinued in this scenario. Apple could then convert some of the brick and mortar Barnes & Noble stores into Apple stores and close the rest. Apple easily can afford the transaction.

Some of us would lament the loss of the retail bookstores, or the possible demise of the Nook. Along with Amazon's coming Android tablet, the Nook has seemed to some the best chance for a branded Android tablet to create a niche in the tablet market that actually answers the question of "why buy it instead of an iPad?"

Does Apple have any interest in buying Barnes & Noble?