After falling 8% in September, bookstore sales bounced back in October with sales inching up 4.5% to $914 million, according to preliminary estimates released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. For the first 10 months of 2012, bookstore sales were down 1.3%, to $12.55 billion. All stores where books account for at least 50% of sales are included in the Census survey.

For the entire retail segment, sales rose 5.2% in October and 5.5% in the first 10 months of the year.