Or at least book-selling prominence. Seattle is the base of Amazon.com, Starbucks and Costco, the New York Times observes, “three companies that increasingly influence what America reads.”

Larry Portzline has shut down Bookstore Tourism indefinitely. “Unfortunately, despite a great deal of excitement and interest from supporters, the necessary funding was scarce,” he writes on his blog. “So, after five years of working on Bookstore Tourism without making a penny (and, in fact, virtually driving myself into bankruptcy), I had to make a very tough decision and pull the plug on the entire project.” He adds: “It may be permanent. I’m simply not sure.”

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Sadly, Los Angeles’ beloved literary bookstore, located in Brentwood, plans to close April 30.

Candida’s World of Books, Washington D.C.’s only travel bookstore, opened to the public for the last time this past weekend, and the Reading Room, the only literary bookstore on the Las Vegas Strip, announced it will be closing as soon as March. 

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Independent bookstore closures are hardly a new phenomenon, but this one really stings. As Canada’s oldest bookstore, The Book Room has kept readers in Nova Scotia supplied with bound volumes for 169 years—since 1839. But as a result of declining sales, the Halifax store is selling down its inventory in preparation for a March closure. Said the store’s president Tuesday, “The staff and I are both really sad about having to do this.”

The AP offers up a list with all the usual U.S. suspects: City Lights, Books & Books, Politics and Prose, etc.

We learned a lot about Bookstore Tourism founder Larry Portzline in our Q&A. We didn’t learn, though, that he rocks. At BookExpo in New York last week, Portzline jammed with Dave Barry, Frank McCourt, Amy Tan and the many other literary all-stars in the band the Rock Bottom Remainders. “It was truly bizarre and amazing,” he wrote me in an e-mail. “Plus it was surprising to hear how well these guys play. In strictly bar-band terms, they’re actually good!”

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Today, we pay our respects to two great California bookstores we’re losing or already have lost. California Map & Travel Center, the fine Santa Monica travel bookstore whose L.A. roots stretched back to 1949—an eternity in L.A.—recently closed shop. The small Pico Boulevard store was crammed with guidebooks, narratives and globes, and it sometimes hosted readings. I once saw travel editor and writer Thomas Swick read there on a book tour, to an enthusiastic audience. The store was profiled here in better days. The other big loss, of course, is Cody’s Books, an institution on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. The store, which stocked all kinds of books, will close July 11. Two other Bay area Cody’s locations will continue to operate, but it is the Telegraph Avenue store, a stone’s throw from the UC Berkeley campus, that is so beloved among book-lovers. 

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We’re believers in bookstore tourism, so our hats are off to Iowa for becoming the first state to officially promote it. The Travel Iowa Web site now lists more than two dozen local independent bookstores and encourages visitors to the Hawkeye State to drop in to get a taste of local communities. And, of course, to buy books. Bookstore tourism founder Larry Portzline, who I interviewed for World Hum last year, applauded Iowa’s efforts. “I hope other state and regional tourism offices follow suit and start promoting their indie bookstores as travel destinations,” he writes on his bookstore tourism blog. “It’s a great way to spread the word.”

Larry Portzline recently appeared on WHP-AM’s Let’s Talk Travel program in Pennsylvania, and he’s included several segments of his conversation with host Sandy Fenton on his most recent podcast. Portzline is the founder of bookstore tourism. He spoke with World Hum about it in October.

It’s newsy, but it’s the kind of news we like. Larry Portzline, who created Bookstore Tourism and wrote a book about it, discusses how to kickstart your own local bookstore tour and spreads the word about an upcoming trip planned by the Southern California Booksellers Association. Portzline also has a Bookstore Tourism blog.

Here’s a travel trend we can get behind: Travel in support of independent booksellers. Larry Portzline started the venture last year as a “grassroots campaign to promote and support independent bookstores by marketing them as a travel and tourist destination.” “It all started last July, when Portzline organized another group of 45 book lovers to travel from Harrisburg to Manhattan to visit 18 bookstores in Greenwich Village,” writes Jane Van Ingen in Poets and Writers magazine. “During the four-hour bus ride to the city, Portzline gave a presentation about competition in the bookselling industry. During the day, travelers visited landmark bookstores such as the Strand and Three Lives and Co., as well as niche stores that sell only cookbooks, foreign-language titles, children’s books, or mysteries.” Next trip: A June 12 excursion, also from Harrisburg, where Portzline works at the local community college, to New York City.  Through his Web site, Portzline encourages others to coordinate trips in their own areas. “Wouldn’t it be great,” he writes, “to see busloads of book-lovers pulling up in front of independent bookstores on a regular basis?”