As a consumer, I am a huge fan of Books-A-Million's (NASDAQ:BAMM) superstores. The book retailer operates 207 stores in a variety of formats, including your basic neighborhood bookstore and its Joe Muggs Newsstands. But the ones I frequent the most are the large-scale Books-A-Million superstores with Joe Muggs coffee shops. While both Borders (NYSE:BGP) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) have similar concepts, my particular attraction to the two Books-A-Million stores I visit regularly is selection. It has the broadest variety of magazines around -- most specifically the extra-wide variety of car magazines, which I peruse a couple of times a month.

But I'm not so keen on the company as an investor. I'll pick up a magazine, but I rarely actually buy a book at a brick-and-mortar shop anymore. Like a growing number of people these days, I buy most of my books online at Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) -- a partner of Borders -- and Amazon's fast-growing rival Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK).

Even though I'm not particularly attracted to Books-A-Million as an investment, the company did report solid Q4 results.

In the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2005, whimsically ended Jan. 29 of this year, the company reported that sales edged up 2.9% over the year-ago quarter, to $149.4 million. Same-store sales increased 2.7%. Meanwhile, net income jumped 20.3% to $9.2 million, or $0.54 per share.

In January, Books-A-Million said it would book a $0.03 to $0.05 gain per share on insurance recoveries related to damage done by hurricanes; the company now expects to book the gain during fiscal 2006, rather than in the just-completed quarter. Excluding the one-time benefit from the insurance recovery, the company expects net income to rise from the $0.59 per share it just earned for fiscal 2005 to somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.67 to $0.69 per share in fiscal 2006. The company also predicted first-quarter earnings of $0.03 to $0.05 per share, vs. $0.07 for the same period last year, stating that the estimated decline is partially the result of higher costs for store openings.

The company did see quarterly gross margins climb from 30.1% last year to 31%. Operating margins also improved from 8.5% to 9.7%, helped further by lower interest expense from debt reduction. Overall, I'd say Books-A-Million turned in a very respectable fourth quarter.

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Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Overstock.com. The Fool has a disclosure policy.