Heroes in Business - Stephen Riggio, Former CEO of Barnes & Noble, translated 2 Historical Books from Italian to English sicilianavengers.com

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Tune in as Stephen Riggio, Former CEO of Barnes & Noble, translated 2 Historical Books from Italian to English, served as the Chairman of the Dia Art Foundation for 8 years, where he led and funded the effort to build Dia:Beacon, one of the world’s most revered contemporary art museums, gets interviewed by the host David Cogan at the Eliances Heroes Show. sicilianavengers.com

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Well, I'm super excited today. Are you ready for this? We have with us Steven Rigio. He is the former CEO of Barnes and Noble. And if that wasn't enough, he's translated two historical books from Italian to English, and you can reach him at caecilianavengers.com.

Once again, that's cailianAvengers.com. So welcome to the show, Steven. Nice to be here. All right, so let's first, let's just jump right into that. You got to be a book lover to become the CEO of Barnes and Noble, are you? Sure, sure. As an early, you know, in my early childhood,

I was a voracious reader. And what kind of books were you reading? It's interesting because when I was young, my brother, who had founded Barnes and Noble, used to bring home books to me all the time. He'd take them from the bookstore and, you know, give them to me to read. And I remember the very first book he gave me was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I was only 10 years old at the time, so that was kind of a mind-opening experience, if you will.

And from then on, I was kind of off to the races as a reader. How do you think things have changed so much with, you know, is it out there where it seems like people are reading less and now more watching movies, now more doing like instant TikTok and stuff, but isn't there something unique when you're actually reading and using your imagination? You know, when we were expanding the company, we started in the 70s, went through the 80s and 90s and into the aughts. And almost at every time, people would say to us, people are not reading anymore.

There's too much television. There's too much cable television. Then there was video games. Then there was the internet. But interestingly, and then e-books, interestingly, book sales have grown through every decade. There's something about books which other forms of leisure entertainment can't compete enough with. There's nothing like holding a book, you know, and diving into it. Books are for people with aspirations. And especially being able to imagine what it is, right, when they're describing something or somebody or like what you've created of translating

two books from Italian to English. That must have been a feat. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Yeah. You're right, cause then each person's visualizing something different when they're reading it. Of course, yes. Yeah. Where do you see as far as with now, and again, where you see things going though

in regards to bookstores themselves and stuff. I mean, it just, it's, you know, do you see eventually everything just going online? I mean, will there be bookstores besides at the airport where you're paying triple the price? Well, as I was saying, when the internet came back in the mid-90s, people were afraid that it would kill bookstores, partly because you could just order a book online and get it delivered to your home. But the more significant aspect of the internet to bookstores was the fact that you could

now look up information online. If you were going on a trip, before you would go into a bookstore and you'd buy, you know, a handful of travel guides. If you were interested in a road trip across America, you'd buy a road atlas. Any cooking, you know, there were all types of information that was now available online that was, you know, formerly used to be only in books. Magazines were a big part of Barnes and Noble sales for many years and many magazines have stopped publishing. Yet, yet, bookstores are still thriving because there's enough, there's enough, there are enough books in print that people come to bookstores for. So they've managed to survive.

They're not going away. Well, I'm motivated after this interview to pick up a book and start reading because it doesn't happen enough and it's almost like that peace and quiet. I think more bookstores opened last year than in the last several years. So there's kind of a resurgence. People love to go to bookstores opened last year than in the last several years. So there's kind of a resurgence.

People love to go to bookstores. They're cultural centers in the community. Like we used to say about our stores, everyone was different. So if you went in a Barnes and Noble, even just a few miles from each other, the selection was different because they had to be customized to the community. So they were like cultural centers. But how do you go into a bookstore

and not critique the bookstore itself, having all this experience and go, well, you know, I think this would do better over here, this section over here. No, no, no. My best experiences were walking into our stores unannounced, somewhere in America that I hadn't been to, and seeing something that was so tailored to that community that it just used to give me goosebumps knowing that the store manager and the staff there were so keyed into their community and wanted to make that store special to that one place.

That was my, those were my best experiences as a CEO, knowing that the people that ran the stores were in full control and they had the ability to make it as if it was their own store. Yeah, and coming from the outside, nobody would have any idea. Nobody would even realize until they were there, like, wow, this is exactly, yeah. And again, we're talking with Steven Riggio,

former CEO of Barnes and Noble, translated two historical books from Italian to English. You can reach them at caecilianavengers.com. And again, this is David Kogan with the Alliance Hero Show. Make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. All right, Stephen, why take on a project that seems quite complex to me?

From Italian to English and talk about the two historical books that you've done, I mean that seems harder than any math problem. You know, I think that in many respects I was destined to do this. First, I have Sicilian blood. So that first and foremost made the book's content something that I could relate to. Secondly, we began taking Italian lessons after a tragic event in our lives. We lost our daughter Melissa to leukemia in 2008.

And it was a tough time for my wife Laura and I. And in searching to fill that empty hole in our lives, I decided why not take Italian lessons together. So we started to do that. And a few years into the lessons, our teacher handed us the original Italian version of the book. And I looked at it and I said, well, this is going to be so difficult to read. And yet we began reading it and we fell in love with it. And I decided, let me try to translate this. It was something audacious. I was retired at the time.

So it was something that I was able to latch onto. Third, the main character in the book is an orphan. My great grandfather was born in Sicily. He was an orphan and he came to America in the great migration. So there were so many things that were coming together that made me seem destined to do this and it was hard and I was up for a challenge. I wanted to do something audacious. Absolutely incredible and how long did it take? I mean you know it's like yeah. It took about two years.

Two years. It took about two years. Yeah. And then how do you have a like quality check to make sure that it was? I had a great editor and a great publisher. Wow. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Yeah. And you served to not only that you served on a number of boards, the National Book Foundation, National Down Syndrome Society, founding member of AHRC, New York City Foundation Board.

Just, you know, incredible. You ever look back and, you know, just think about, again, the history, the impact that you made, again, right? Even with being the CEO of Barnes and Noble, you mentioned about that. Just kind of what goes through your mind, you know, of your history, your legacy, and tying it to the books? Well, my career in book selling was close to 40 years, and it's one of the most,

it's one of the most proudest things in my life to know that we created that company together, my brother and I. And he was the founder of the company and one of the great retailers in America. And we had just lost him a couple of weeks ago. So it was a tremendous amount of pride in knowing that we did that. On the personal side, our daughter, who we lost in 2008, had Down syndrome. And my wife, Laura, and I have spent the years since then as advocates for people with intellectual disabilities. And that's been one of the more important

parts of our life since she was born. And we continue to advocate and are involved in that area. Wow. Yeah. So, for those of you that are watching and listening, listen carefully, we're going to do some snooping right now. So, Stephen, I want to do some snooping in your office right now. Behind you, of course, is the Sicilian Avengers book poster. And then you've got a number of other books, some pictures in there. What would be the one item if you were to be able to grab any item

if something were to happen? What item, what thing there means the most to you? Well, these are so many of the books that I used in researching the background to the novel, which is a historical novel. And one of my favorite novels, maybe the favorite novel is The Leopard by Giovanni di Lampedusa. And it's the great historian, the great historical Sicilian novel, probably the best

novel that ever came out of Italy. So that's the one that I would pick. Wow. If you didn't do a career in books and bookstores and that, what do you think you'd be doing? What do you think you would have done? Well, I'd say when I was young, I wanted to be an architect. And that never got anywhere. I began reading spy novels when I was very young, mostly James Bond by Ian Fleming. So I always thought a career maybe in the CIA would have been interesting. But I think more the George Smiley type than the James Bond type. What's your next book you're going to write?

There's a sequel to the book that I translated. The book that I translated was a thousand pages. The sequel is 1700 pages. So we're busy reading that right now, my wife Laura and I. Oh my, how long does it take? Why not do something audacious, right? Instead of a small project. Incredible. How long does it take to read it and then trans, I mean like this is a very long project. Read it, translate it, have it re-read in the translation. When I retired, as I said, you know, we lost our daughter. And when you retire, you're looking for things to do and things to fill the time. And learning the Italian language was something that I just grabbed onto. I had studied it when I was young, but never really stayed with it. And the great thing about this is that my wife and I

are doing it together. We're reading the books together. We're finishing the books together. And as I translate it, you know, we're working together and it's very gratifying. And we do, we take many trips to Italy. I'll be going to Sicily tomorrow, which is where the book takes place. So it's been a very nourishing part of our lives.

Wonderful. Yeah. Probably brings both of you even closer together. Yes. Yeah. Well, fantastic. Well, Stephen, it's been an honor having you on the show. Stephen Rigio, CEO of Barnes & Noble, translated two historical books from Italian to English. Make sure you go to SicilianAvengers.com and of course we'll have it on our website, alliances.com.

This has been David Cogan with the Alliances Hero Show. And of course, we'll have it on our website, alliances.com. This has been David Kogan with the alliances hero show. Thank you again for Stephen for being on the show. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. I got to dance a little bit.