Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

America's Most (Surprisingly) Well-Read Cities

No. 1 is Alexandria, Virginia

By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff

Posted May 17, 2012 11:27 AM CDT

(Newser) – If you think America's bookworms live in New York or San Francisco, think again. Amazon has released its list of the country's 20 most well-read cities, and they hail from such states as Michigan and Florida, reports Reuters. Top honors goes to Virginia's Alexandria, and though Berkeley and Cambridge do indeed make the top five, they're joined by Ann Arbor and Boulder. Wait til you see who's sixth:

  1. Miami
  2. Arlington, Va.
  3. Gainesville, Fla.
  4. Washington, DC
  5. Salt Lake City
  6. Pittsburgh
  7. Knoxville, Tenn.
  8. Seattle
Click to see the entire list, which was compiled by looking at book, magazine, newspaper, and eBook sales since June in cities of more than 100,000.
Amazon names the most bookwormiest cities.
Amazon names the most bookwormiest cities.   (?|Chris|)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
My TakeCLICK BELOW TO VOTE
5%
77%
2%
6%
0%
10%
To report an error on this story, notify our editors.
COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 13 comments
upsedaisey
May 20, 2012 1:48 AM CDT
I would like to know WHAT books are being purchased.  Someone can read the entire Twilight series in the time it takes to read The Brothers Karamazov.  Furthermore, this does not include book sales from second-hand stores (where I buy almost all my reads) and library rentals.  Now, after having written this I would like to add that I am from the South, so this doesn't surprise me.  Despite the stereotyping, many great authors are from the South (Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, Harper Lee, Tennessee Williams, Edgar Allan Poe, Kate Chopin, Robert Penn Warren, Truman Capote, etc...not including the contemporary authors), so if we're writing books, we must be reading them.  :)-
gomer99
May 17, 2012 9:48 PM CDT
Apparently, library activity -- both in person and download -- did NOT figure into these statistics. Not saying it would have changed much..........but...........??
Bentham
May 17, 2012 2:40 PM CDT
What people do not fully realize is that people today are selective in what they read, and this makes a HUGE difference in their practical knowledge about current affairs. The amount of "reading" does not relate in any significant way, to increased knowledge of the world. Reading is often mere entertainment - a fiction novel or story. Everybody reads what is agreeable, not what challenges one's previous understanding. Smokers, for example, will direct their attentions to magazines and newspapers that refuse to accept anti-tobbaco ads. Conservatives will buy the magazines and newspapers which are expected to support what they already believe. America-fisters will buy the magazine with the flag on the front, replete with articles tending to support their own view. The individualistic American political ethos is creating an environment where we can each individualistically arrange our inputs to conform to exactly what we WANT to believe - impartial scholarly research be damned. And this misfortune will eventually be the undoing of the Great Experiment. 

 
literature • lists • reading • Amazon • books

 
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   World History Project   |   POPSUGAR Tech   |   Business Insider   |   HuffPost Entertainment   |   NewsOne