Congrats Alexandria, VA, You’re The Most Well-Read City In America

Do you think your city is full of readers? Are your local parks full of literary warriors laying on benches an blankets, curled up with e-readers? If this scenario sounds like cultural utopia, you mig...
Congrats Alexandria, VA, You’re The Most Well-Read City In America
Written by Josh Wolford

Do you think your city is full of readers? Are your local parks full of literary warriors laying on benches an blankets, curled up with e-readers? If this scenario sounds like cultural utopia, you might want to consider moving to one of the places on Amazon’s 2012 list of the most well-read cities in America.

Amazon compiled sales of books, magazines, and newspaper sales in both print and electronic format to come up with their annual list which tracks the most book-happy cities with a population over 100,000. Of course, their data doesn’t include many of those off-the-radar book sales happening at your local used bookstores and other independent outlets – but their list does give us a good snapshot of which American towns can find time away from the TV and Xbox to enjoy one of the world’s simplest pleasures.

Without further ado, check out the top 20 most well-read cities in the United States (in order):

  1. Alexandria, Virginia
  2. Cambridge, Massachusetts
  3. Berkeley, California
  4. Ann Arbor, Michigan
  5. Boulder, Colorado
  6. Miami, Florida
  7. Arlington, Virginia
  8. Gainesville, Florida
  9. Washington D.C.
  10. Salt Lake City, Utah
  11. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  12. Knoxville, Tennessee
  13. Seattle, Washington
  14. Orlando, Florida
  15. Columbia, South Carolina
  16. Bellevue, Washington
  17. Cincinnati, Ohio
  18. St. Louis, Missouri
  19. Atlanta, Georgia
  20. Richmond, Virginia

As you can see, Virginia really showed up this year with three different cities on the list. Amazon tells us that Virginia is indeed for lovers, as Arlington was tops in the romance book category.

Other specifics? Berkeley readers love travel books and Boulder readers are concerned with staying in shape with the most books per capita purchased in the health & fitness category.

In the last year, we’ve seen a changeup at the top. Cambridge, MA and Alexandria, VA have flip flopped since 2011.

Although we failed to make Amazon’s most well-read list, my hometown of Lexington, KY still holds the title of “most e-literate” city, according to a recent survey.

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