Huh. I pulled the data for this from the Census Bureau. I would have figured that December was the largest month for sales, followed by November and October. In fact, it generally goes December, August, January, September. Even that isn't certain. In some years, December is not the month of largest sales. August is taking a dramatic rise over the last five years, and it appears January is as well. Or it could be that 2001 and 2000 numbers are just the result of the recession and the ordering of the more recent years is noise generated. I don't think the numbers are adjusted for inflation, and I know they are not seasonally adjusted.
Tags: the bookstore