During December, bookstore sales fell 4.7% to $2.051 billion--down for the fourth month in a row--according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. In November, bookstore sales fell 13% compared to the same period a year earlier.

By comparison, total retail sales in December dropped 9.3% to $354.751 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.

Bookstore sales for all of 2008 were down 0.5% to $16.93 billion. During 2008, total retail sales fell an identical 0.5% to $4,016 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.

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In January, general retail sales rose 1% compared to the previous month, but were down 9.7% compared to January 2008, according to Commerce Department estimates. Most observers attributed the meager improvement over December to heavy discounts, giveaways and three-for-one deals.

Last December, net book sales rose 9.7% to $1.5 billion, as reported to the Association of American Publishers by 81 member publishers. For the year, net sales fell 2.4% to $10.6 billion.

Among results by category:

• Children's/YA hardcover rose 124.6% to $115.1 million (for the year sales dropped 12.4%).
• E-books jumped 119.9% to $6.5 million (up 68.4% for the year).
• Children's/YA paperback rose 37% to $54.4 million (sales were up 6.4% for the year).
• Adult paperback rose 12.5% to $132.8 million (for the year, sales rose 3.6%).
• Audiobooks rose 11.7% to $10.5 million (down 21% during the year).
• Professional and scholarly grew 11.4% to $110.3 million (down 0.5% for the year).
• University press hardcover was up 5.4% to $7.1 million (down 7.9% for the year).
• Religious books rose 3.5% to $49.3 million (down 7.6% for the year).

• University press paperback dropped 3.8% to $9.7 million (down 8.2% for the year).
• Adult mass market fell 8.3% to $73.7 million (down 3% for the year).
• Adult hardcover fell 10.3% to $113.3 million (for the year, sales fell 13%).