After announcing that John Lewis will be carrying the Barnes & Noble Nook family of eBook readers in the UK, the US company has now revealed several other big-name stores that will be selling the devices from "this autumn".

Like the John Lewis high street chain, specialist bookshops Foyles and Blackwell's, and jack of all trades Argos will also be stocking the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight eBook readers from the UK launch date.

"We're excited to work with Argos, Blackwell's and Foyles to introduce our popular Nook reading experience to an even broader audience in the United Kingdom," said Jamie Iannone, president of digital products at Barnes & Noble.

"Argos built its brand on choice and convenience, and with 90 per cent of the population living within 10 miles of an Argos store, this literally brings the Nook experience close to home for millions of UK consumers.

"Blackwell's has built a reputation on its wide selection of titles and extremely knowledgeable staff, much like Barnes & Noble, and we're delighted to continue in our dedication to the education space.

"As London's largest independent bookshop chain, Foyles is a trusted name in books and literature in the UK, so we're pleased to work together to bring Nook and our expansive digital catalogue to people passionate about books and reading."

It's a timely announcement from Barnes & Noble as its major competitor is due to hold a press event in San Diego on 6 September. It is expected that Amazon will refresh its own touch screen eBook reader devices, although that traditionally doesn't affect the UK until several months after a US release.

There's no word on prices yet, but the UK versions of the Nook devices are tipped to retail at less than Amazon's equivalents.