Traditional booksellers have been hurting since the emergence and rise of digital books in the last five years. The explosion of e-books, which now account for some 27% of book unit sales by some estimates, has certainly claimed its victims, most notably Borders, which folded three years ago, and led many to doubt Barnes & Noble (BKS) could escape a similar fate. Adding to the doom and gloom, some popular bookstores across the country have shut their doors this year in key markets like New York.

But e-books’ share of the overall book pie appears to be peaking, and customers are rediscovering the joys of reading an actual book, easing pressure on Barnes & Noble, the largest remaining U.S. bookstore chain.

The largest U.S. bookstore chain reported on Tuesday that comparable sales, stripping out the effect of the Nook sales, a business Barnes & Noble has scaled back and is planning to separate, fell a mere 0.4% last quarter, the third quarter in a row showing that its bread-and-butter business — selling physical books — has stabilized. Its smaller, regional rival, Books-A-Million (BAMM) has similarly reported a moderation in the decline of book sales.

“People still love going into a bookstore and are always looking for something new,” Mitch Clipper, CEO of Barnes & Noble Retail Group, the unit that oversees its 658 bookstores. Some of Barnes & Noble’s good fortune of late stemmed from the standoff this summer between Amazon.com (AMZN) and book publisher Hachette that made many books under that imprint unavailable on Amazon.

And while e-books remain popular, their breathtaking growth has stalled. Indeed, according to a report by BookStats released in June, revenue in 2013 of e-books for mainstream books was unchanged compared to 2012, with lower prices offsetting higher unit sales. The hemorrhage of printed books sales is over, giving the like of Barnes & Noble a reprieve.

Barnes & Noble also got a boost from toys and games, whose sales rose 19.5% last quarter, which ended August 2. The retail division’s revenues fell 7% because of the drop in Nook readers sold in store, but the physical stores continued to be a cash cow, and proved to be more profitable despite the revenue decline. And with company continuing to close 15-20 stores a year, it looks like a return to positive comparable sales changes is within reach.

Still, the report wasn’t all good news. Barnes & Noble said that it had postponed the relaunch of its e-commerce until 2015 because it was taking longer than expected, a setback that likely will cost it sales of physical books. But that problem aside, it’s hard to deny there’s life yet in brick-and-mortar book selling.