(Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N) reported strong preliminary holiday results at its superstores, led by the popularity of its Nook e-readers.

The top U.S. bookseller reported a preliminary same-store sales increase of 9.7 percent for the nine-week period ended on January 1 at its existing superstores.

That figure includes Nook devices sold in stores but not on its website. Last week, Barnes & Noble said the Nook had become its best selling single item ever. Barnes & Noble operates 717 namesake stores in the United States.

Barnes & Noble, which put itself up for sale in August, introduced the Nook in 2009 in a bid to compete with Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) market-leading Kindle and win a share of the growing digital books market.

Barnes & Noble also said it set a company retail sales record on December 23. The retailer said it would release more detailed sales figures on Thursday.

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