Bookstore sales fell 2.6% in April, to $969 million, according to preliminary estimates released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. Bookstore sales have fallen every month this year and the April decline was slightly higher than the 1.4% drop reported in March. Through the first four months of 2009, bookstore sales declined 3.8%, to $5.21 billion. For the entire retail segment, sales were down 4.0% in April and 9.9% for the four-month period.