Amazon Releases “Most Well-Read Cities in America” List

Amazon published its Most Well-Read Cities in America list this week. Three Pacific Northwest cities made the Top 20 list:

According to Amazon, the cities on the most-well-read list were determined by "compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle formats since Jan. 1 on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,00 residents."

The leaders were Cambridge MA, Alexandria VA, and Berkeley CA. Interestingly, many of the cities on the list are also the homes of major colleges and universities as well as large corporations.

Fun Facts
In taking a closer look at the data, Amazon also found that:

• Not only do they like to read, but they like to know the facts: Cambridge MA — home to the prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology — also topped the list of cities that ordered the most nonfiction books.
• Boulder CO lives up to its reputation as a healthy city by topping the list of cities that order the most books in the Cooking, Food & Wine category.
• Alexandria VA residents must be reading a lot of bedtime stories — they topped the list of the city that orders the most children's books.
• Summer reading weather all year long? Florida was the state with the most cities in the Top 20, with Miami, Gainesville and Orlando making the list.