These days, there are lists for virtually everything. These lists are fascinating, primarily because I get to learn new things about cities I’ve never been to. I’ve seen the list of America’s Most Affordable Cities, American’s Best Cities for Retirees, America’s Most Under-rated Cities, and many other lists. So I was thrilled to see reports that Amazon had released its list of Top 20 Most Well-read Cities.
Amazon’s list is for cities that have a population larger than 100,000, and the rankings and results are based on data from book, magazine and newspaper sales since June 2011 in both print and Kindle formats. This is the second time that Amazon has released the most well-read cities list.
This year, the first place winner is Alexandria, Virginia. Alexandria is no newcomer to the list, having been in second place in last year’s list. This time, Alexandria raced ahead of last year’s winner, Cambridge, Massachusetts, relegating Cambridge to the second spot. Alexandria isn’t exactly a dark horse when it comes to well-read cities. With a population comprising mostly government workers, military personnel, or employees of private companies with contracts with the federal government, one would expect the city to be filled with voracious readers.What was surprising however, was that Alexandria topped the list because of romance books. Alexandria’s residents apparently buy the most number of romance books in all of America! Never let it be said that government employees and military personnel aren’t romantic!
Cambridge’s place on the Most Well-Read list was sealed not by love and romance, but by Business and Investing – not so surprising, given the top business schools located in and around the city. Other cities in the top five include Berkeley, California, which had the highest number of Travel books purchased, and America’s fittest city Boulder, Colorado, which naturally did a brisk business in the Health and Fitness category.
Is your city on Amazon’s list of most well-read cities? Find out by checking the full list here!