Possible to remove hyperlink from top category?

What I’d like to be able to do is have a hierarchical category list, but with the link removed from the top category. For instance a top category called “books” and sub-categories of romance, sci-fi, and non-fiction, I only want there to be links for those sub-categories of books and not for the “books” category name itself.

Does that make sense? It seems a simple thing but I’ve spent hours unable to come up with a solution. Any help would be appreciated ??