There are many players in the e-reader world, but few have managed to gain any sort of traction. Though it hasn't achieved Kindle levels of success Barnes & Noble is taking pride in saying that its Nook series of readers has conquered 25 percent of the US e-book market. The company doesn't cite any specific sales figures to back up that number, but we'll go with it. Sadly, though, there's another 25 percent number that is detailed and isn't nearly so positive: that's how much the company's profits dropped from this period last year. That was said to be due to heavy investments in the Nook but, despite that, B&N managed to post a $60.6 million profit -- certainly better than some of the competition