"I think it's short-sighted. For me, closing libraries is the equivalent of eating your seed corn to save a little money. They recently did a survey that showed that among poor white boys in England, 45% have reading difficulties and cannot read for pleasure. Which is a monstrous statistic, especially when you start thinking about it as a statistic that measures not just literacy but also as a measure of imagination and empathy, because a book is a little empathy machine. It puts you inside somebody else's head. You see out of the world through somebody else's eyes. It's very hard to hate people of a certain kind when you've just read a book by one of those people. So in that context, as far as I'm concerned, closing libraries is endangering the future. You know, at least with the libraries there, you're in with a chance."

September bookstore sales fell 6.5%, to $1.07 billion, compared to September 2013, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. This marked a return to the trend of the first seven months of the year, when sales slipped every month. In 2014, August has been the only month that showed a gain over the same month the previous year. For the year to date, bookstore sales have fallen 5.4%, to $8.6 billion. Total retail sales in September rose 7.6%, to $425.1 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. For the year to date, total retail sales have risen 4%, to $3,881 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, the bookstore category consists of "establishments primarily engaged in retailing a general line of new books. These establishments may also sell stationery and related items, second-hand books, and magazines."

Barnes & Noble will close its 23,000-square-foot store in Midlothian, Va., WTVR reported. David Deason, B&N v-p of development, cited a familiar reason for the decision: "The lease will expire at the end of January 2015 and the store will be closing at the end of December. We have numerous locations throughout the Richmond metro area and look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve our valued customers at those locations."

Amazon Anonymous, which has protested Amazon's treatment of workers in the U.K. and the rate of taxes it pays, has raised £7,000 ($10,970) for a campaign urging people not to shop with Amazon this Christmas, the Bookseller reported.

As part of the campaign, people are urged to sign the group's Amazon Free Challenge--a pledge not to shop at Amazon December 1-25. The challenge reads in part:

"Christmas is Amazon's busiest time of year--and it's also our best chance to disrupt their business.

"They don't pay their workers a Living Wage. They dodge their tax. They take money away from our local shops. So this year, let's take our money away from them.

"So: are you up for a challenge? Can you avoid shopping at Amazon this Christmas? We know going cold turkey is hard--but we'll provide you with support to help you shop somewhere better."

The 2015 PubWest Conference will be held February 5-7 at the Westin Pasadena, Pasadena, Calif., with the theme "Spread the Word." Keynotes will be given by Joe Rohde, creative executive, Walt Disney Imagineering; Thatcher Wine, founder of Juniper Books; and H. Kevin Miserocchi, executive director at the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. Online registration is now open.

Preconference intensive sessions include How to Sell TV, Movie & Foreign Rights and Data Speaks: How to Leverage your Sales Track Record to Sell Your Next Book. PubWest sessions include Libraries and Technology, Getting Organized and Being Efficient; The Self-Publishing Opportunity for Publishers, Direct to Consumer Sales; The Business of Creativity, Resolving Publishing Legal Questions; Royalties: Best Practices; and We Note, Not Keynote: An Open Discussion about Publishing Challenges in the Marketplace.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is asking booksellers to help promote its holiday auction of children's book art, which helps support ABFFE's defense of the free speech rights of kids, including the Kids' Right To Read Project. The auction launches on eBay December 1 and ABFFE has created a variety of tools that booksellers can use to promote it.

"We think that many bookstore customers will appreciate hearing about the auction, which is a great place to buy unique holiday gifts," said Inessa Spencer, ABFFE auction manager. Eric Carle, Rosemary Wells, Jon J. Muth, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Steve Light and other leading artists have contributed more than 80 works, including many originals.

ABFFE has created promotional cards in two sizes: a business card and a postcard. They can be ordered by e-mailing inessa@abffe.org. ABFFE is also offering a Web banner and an ad that can be included in newsletters and e-mails.

British historian and author Antony Beevor was presented with the $100,000 2014 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing recently. Following the black-tie dinner that filled the hotel ballroom at the Hilton Chicago, Beevor signed his most recent book, The Second World War (Little, Brown), as well as Stalingrad (Penguin) for invited guests, including many active members of the military.

"Ever looking for a bookstore and café in the great city of Boston? Trident Booksellers and Café is the place for you!" Emerson College's Emertainment News reported, noting that co-founders Bernie and Gail Flynn, aided by daughter Courtney, "have been providing the good people of Boston's Back Bay with a relaxing place to browse a wide collection of books, while sitting down for a nice breakfast, lunch, or dinner.... Between the tasty food, large book selection, and fun events, Trident Booksellers and Café is a place anyone of any age can go and enjoy."

Last week, the Academy of American Poets hit the 100,000 subscriber mark for its Poem-a-Day series, which presents--online via e-mail and its website--new, previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and a curated selection of classic poems on weekends.

"Poetry is not only alive and well in the United States, thanks to mobile, poetry is finding new readers. It's an easily shareable art form, perfectly suited for our digital present," said AAP executive director Jennifer Benka, adding that the majority of Poem-a-Day readers are now using phones and tablets.

Dee and Chuck Robinson

In celebration of the 93rd annual American Education Week, which started yesterday and runs through Friday, Village Books/Paper Dreams, Bellingham, Wash., is giving a $10 gift certificate to every public school teacher in Whatcom County. Representatives of each district's Education Association are distributing the certificates to the educators in each of the county's seven school districts, nearly 1,700 in all.

Although Village Books/Paper Dreams works with educators and schools and has long offered discounts to districts and teachers for materials purchased for classroom use, this gift certificate is a "personal gift to teachers," said Chuck Robinson. "We hope they'll use it to get themselves a well-deserved treat."

Chuck and his wife, Dee, who own Village Books/Paper Dreams, spent 10 years teaching and consulting in public schools. "We know how hard teachers work and we're really thankful for what they do," Chuck added. "This is just a small token of our appreciation for folks who often are under-appreciated."

In a restructuring, Workman Publishing Group has made the following changes:

David Schiller, group creative director, will act as in-house creative agency, continue to be responsible for catalogue and jacket copy, and will expand on his advisory role to Algonquin, Artisan, Storey and Timber.
Page Edmunds, associate publisher, is becoming Susan Bolotin's full partner in the Workman book program, focusing on the editorial-sales connection, will serve as brand manager for What to Expect, Raichlen, 1,000... Before You Die and Boynton, and will continue to be sales liaison for the Experiment, Timber and Storey.
Selina Meere, executive director of publicity and marketing, is overseeing the integration of Workman's publicity and marketing departments and will continue to oversee corporate communications.
Jenny Mandel is now executive director, new business development.
Emily Krasner, director, special markets and custom publishing, will oversee the special markets department.
Randall Lotowycz, director, online retail accounts, will be responsible for the company's e-book business with Amazon, Apple, Kobo and Google, and continue to handle print books with Amazon.
Andrea Fleck-Nisbet is now executive director, digital strategy & operations.

Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century by Lex Bayer and John Figdor (Rowman & Littlefield).

Tomorrow morning on Fox & Friends: Tony Robbins, author of Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781476757803).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Joel Klein, author of Lessons of Hope: How to Fix Our Schools (Harper, $27.99, 9780062268648).

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Tomorrow on CNBC's Closing Bell:

Norman Lear, author of Even This I Get to Experience (Penguin Press, $32.95, 9781594205729).
James Grant, author of The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781451686456).

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Tomorrow on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live:

Brooke Shields, author of There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me (Dutton, $26.95, 9780525954842).
Russell Brand, author of The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Russell Brand's Trickster Tales (Atria, $19.99, 9781476791890). He will also appear on Live with Kelly and Michael.

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Tomorrow night on Late Night with Seth Meyers: Al Michaels, author of You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television (Morrow, $28.99, 9780062314963).

Dennis McFarland has won the $5,000 Michael Shaara Prize for Excellence in Civil War Fiction for Nostalgia (Pantheon), which the judges described as chronicling "the journey of a nineteen-year-old Union soldier abandoned by his comrades in the Wilderness, who is struggling to regain his voice, his identity, and his place in a world utterly changed by what he has experienced on the battlefield."

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The 2014 World Fantasy Awards winners are:

Best novel: A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer Press)
Best novella: "Wakulla Springs" by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10/13)
Best short fiction: "The Prayer of Ninety Cats" by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean, spring 2013)
Best anthology: Dangerous Women by Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin (Tor Books)
Best collection: The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)
Best artist: Charles Vess

Special Award--Professional (tie):
Irene Gallo, art direction of Tor.com
William K. Schafer, Subterranean Press
Special Award--Non-Professional: Kate Baker, Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace for Clarkesworld

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Finalists have been named for the £10,000 ($15,640) Guardian First Book Award, including "two collections of short stories, a novel and an investigation into modern China." This year's shortlisted titles are:

Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane
Things to Make and Break by May-Lan Tan
Young Skins by Colin Barrett

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Three books have been shortlisted for the Great War Dundee Children's Book Prize, which commemorates Dundee's centenary involvement in World War I. The winner, who will be announced in March, receives £2,500 ($3,917) and his or her novel will be published by Cargo Publishing. The shortlisted titles are:

The God of All Small Boys by Joseph Lamb
Shell Hole by Lindsay Littleson
The Wreck of the Argyll by John K. Fulton

The human head is remarkable. Not only does it boast receptors for each of the five senses and house the brain--the command center for the body--but it also displays the face, which (for better or worse) defines our identities to the outer world. In Severed, anthropologist Frances Larson (An Infinity of Things) examines a dark side of the human head--specifically, its separation from (and attempted reattachment to) the human body in myriad ways and with different purposes, intentions and results.

The Western world has balked at shrunken heads, trophy heads, headhunting and wartime brutalities, but still maintained a macabre enthusiasm for collecting these specimens, which, ironically, led to an increase in the practices. In Europe, beheadings for criminal and political offenses led to the development of the guillotine during the French Revolution. Despite its gore, this machine was heralded for its efficiency and arguably humane approach relative to other execution methods. Detached heads have served as religious and secular relics; scientific or pseudo-scientific tools; artists' inspiration; soldiers' souvenirs; and objects of ritual and political symbolism. In fact, much of Larson's study considers the interplay between the head as part of an individual and head as object: it is necessary to objectify in order to decapitate or dissect. An overarching concern is whether the head alone holds the essence of each of us. The question remains unanswered, even as Larson investigates cryonic suspension of severed heads and head transplants (or as their practitioners prefer, "body transplants") in one of her most intriguing and memorable chapters.

Larson's examinations of the head's place throughout history and the present are endlessly fascinating. Her writing is never gratuitously gruesome, but necessarily deals in grisly detail. (In addition to the myriad lessons within these pages, readers may well learn the threshold at which they become disturbed by such subject matter.) Severed explores the head in idiom, in its "linguistic ubiquity," and as a tool for justifying racism: one major collector of skulls and related data rounded average skull size up for Germans and Anglo-Saxons, but down for "Negroid" Egyptians.

In this thoughtful survey of decapitated heads and their implications in history and across cultures, Larson is sensitive and thorough, allowing occasional humor while giving her subject the respect it deserves, offering entertainment alongside a truly engrossing educational experience. For readers of science, history, culture, anthropology and generally quirky nonfiction, Severed will be thought-provoking and unforgettable. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Strong-stomached readers will enjoy this accessibly written cultural anthropology of severed heads.