The rumors that Barnes & Noble was going to take over ailing Borders, Inc. to form one giant two-headed love baby of American bookselling made many booksellers and publishers, independent and otherwise, nervous wrecks this summer. But reports (such as this one, from the Wall St. Journal) that B&N scuttled the idea due to financial woes have only morphed into something making the industry all the more nervous: Expectations from within that B&N is headed for even more financial trouble in the upcoming, all-important holiday season. The Wall St. Journal‘s book biz reporter, Jeffrey Trachtenberg, the most perceptive and knowledgeable mainstream industry reporter, says in a new story that B&N chairman Len Riggio has written an internal memo predicting “a terrible holiday season” and saying that he expects “the trend to continue well into 2009, and perhaps beyond.”