By Siobhan O’Leary

Book sales in Germany for the month of November were down by 5.3%, according to buchreport, and thus jeopardize cumulative gains made over the course of the year. At the end of eleven months, sales for the year as a whole are up a mere 0.9% over last year. December usually accounts for more than double the sales of any other given month (in 2008, it accounted for 18.5% of annual sales), but so far sales during the holiday season have been relatively on par with those of last year.