Is the chapter closed for a local book scene?

Do an online search for bookstores in the area and you'll come up pretty dry.

In the region there are two used bookstores, an independent bookseller, a college bookstore and a handful of comic book dealers.

"It's such a book desert here," said Tulare County Librarian Jeff Scott. "In Central Valley, if you don't have a strong library system, you don't have any books at all."

Tulare County, with a population of over 450,000, lacks venues that offer a wide variety of books of different genres, especially since Borders bookstore shut its doors in Visalia in 2011.

Nearly three years later and the bookstore void still hasn't been filled. A big-box bookstore hasn't swept into the area offering a wide selection of books and local book lovers must either shop at nearby family-owned book shops, shop online for their reading needs or drive 45 minutes away to the nearest Barnes & Noble in Fresno.

The book scene is far from thriving as online retailers and e-readers are killing brick-and-mortar bookstores and as the big-box stores, from Barnes & Noble to BOOKOFF USA, haven't yet been attracted to the area.

With so few options available for readers, one has to ask, does Tulare County read, and if so, where do locals get their reading fix?

Shannon Satterfield, 22, a student worker at Barnes & Noble College on the College of the Sequoia campus, said she loves all genres of books, especially a good mystery.

She regularly makes the drive to Fresno for her book needs.

The Los Angeles native said she's used to having an abundance of bookstores available to her, with nearly one at every corner in Los Angeles.

Satterfield said she'd love for Barnes & Noble to come to Tulare County so she wouldn't have to make the 45 minute drive to Fresno

"I'd frequent the store all of the time if it came here," she said.

David Deason, vice president of development at Barnes & Noble, is the man with the power to say where the next Barnes & Noble locations will be.

Deason has been with the company long enough to grow the mega bookstore from 11 to over 800 stores.

He said since the recession struck and the landscape of books has gone through rapid change, Barnes & Noble is now cautiously going about future expansion.

"My first intent, when we identify the right vehicle for the market, I'm going to go back to places where we had tremendously, successful stores and reinvest there and then work my way out to markets that are slightly less dense, that maybe don't have the same population offering overall," he said. "Our most successful stores are in dynamic, regional concentrations of a lot of retails."

When it is time to select future locations for growth, Deason said Barnes & Noble will likely go to sites where well-performing stores had shut down in recent years, including in locations such as Pasadena. The stores are then likely to be expanded in more densely populated cities.

"It's about making smart, strategic financial investments," Deason said. "And while Vislaia should at some point in the future be able to make our list in terms of the next right investment, it would be inappropriate to say it's the first one I make."

"We intend to and look forward to, at our earliest opportunity, place a store in Visalia. And in the mean time, when you have a little extra time on your hands, make the drive to Fresno," he said.

For those not wanting to make the drive to Fresno, there are always Visalia's Bargain Books, Linda's Used Books and Exeter's Book Garden.

Bargain Books, off West Walnut Avenue, offers new and used books for as low as $2.

Owner Edith Butterworth said knowing her store is one of the few of its kind in the area, she tries her best to offer a big selection for customers -- from fiction, non-fiction, self-help, first editions and more -- especially since the closing of Borders.

"We are trying to fill the void since Borders closed," she said. "It's impossible, but we're trying to do our best."

Butterworth took over the management of the store after her husband passed two years ago. She nearly decided to let the store go, but decided to continue running it with help from her two daughters.

Earlier this year the store celebrated its 20th year in business and Butterworth is hoping the store will be around to see its 21st year.

"We cannot say how we'll be doing, we can be doing bad today and can be excellent tomorrow," she said. "We don't know what will happen."

Another local option for readers is Barnes & Noble College at COS.

The store is limited in its general reading selection and geared more towards textbooks for students, but offers a limited assortment of national campus bestsellers and bargain books priced from $1 and up.

From David Sedaris to Katherine Boo, a handful of titles from popular authors can be purchased by the public at the store.

Deason said numerous titles can also be ordered at the COS location if customers have the book's author, title and ISBN information.

Due to the lack of a book landscape in Tulare County, County Librarian Scott is proud the Tulare County Library has a strong system with 15 branches throughout the county.

In an effort to reach readers in rural areas with less resources, the library has ventured out with book vending machines, which gives locals the opportunity to check out books from machines at five locations throughout the county.

A location across the street from Cutler Elementary offers 300 children books and sees a few hundred checkouts each month, Scott said. Locations at Visalia's and Dinuba's Workforce Investment Board Employment Connection offices also feature books on résumé writing, interviewing and other job prep skills.

The county library system also sells books for as low as 50 cents through Friends of the Library, has e-books available for three-week checkout for tech-savvy readers, and is connected to 2 millions books through Connected Catalog, which makes books accessible from not only Tulare County brnach libraries, but from Fresno and Kings county libraries as well.

Scott said his family uses the county library for much of their reading needs. They used to also regularly supplement library trips with visits to Borders before it closed.

Scott says he is certain a bookstore would thrive in this book desert.

"With the borders that closed, it wasn't doing bad business, it was doing good business," he said. "If it was any other bookstore, it would still be in business where Borders was because rent was so low."

And until a big-box store makes a return to the area, Scott said, he and his family will just have to regularly continue their ventures into Fresno for Barnes & Noble.

Local book sellers

• Bargain Books, 5139 W. Walnut Ave., Visalia

• Barnes & Noble College, 915 S. Mooney Blvd., Visalia

• Book Garden, 189 E. Pine St., Exeter

• Costco, 1405 W. Cameron Ave., Visalia

• Friends of the Tulare County Library, 200 W. Oak Ave., Visalia

• Linda's Used Books, 1107 E. Houston Ave., Visalia

• Target: Available at local Target locations

• Tulare Public Library, 475 N. M St., Tulare. (Every first Saturday of each month)

• Walmart: Available at local Walmart locations