This article was published on May 26, 2011

Amazon reveals the most well-read cities in the USA


Amazon reveals the most well-read cities in the USA

Hot on the heels of Amazon.com announcing that its Kindle is now outselling all print books in the US, the e-commerce giant has revealed which US cities are the most ‘well-read’.

And how did Amazon.com come to its conclusion? Well, by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales across all formats – in digital and print – since Jan. 1, 2011.

Amazon.com included cities with more than 100,000 residents and it was calculated on a per capita basis. So who came out on top? Cambridge, Massachusetts, of course. As home to the prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge also topped the list for reading the most non-fiction books.

Boulder, Colo., 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. Whilst Alexandria, Va., residents topped the list of the city that orders the most children’s books. Florida, the sunshine state, was the state with the most cities in the Top 20, with Miami, Gainesville and Orlando making the list.

Mari Malcolm, managing editor of Books, Amazon.com, said:

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“In anticipation of the summer reading season, we’re excited to reveal the Most Well-Read City list. We hope book lovers across the country enjoy this fun look at where the most voracious readers reside, and that everyone gets the chance to relax with some great summer reads.”

And the top 20 most read-cities are:

1. Cambridge, Mass.; 2. Alexandria Va.;  3. Berkeley, Calif.; 4. Ann Arbor, Mich.; 5. Boulder, Colo.;  6. Miami, Fla.; 7. Salt Lake City; 8. Gainesville, Fla.; 9. Seattle; 10. Arlington, Va.; 11. Knoxville, Tenn.; 12. Orlando, Fla.; 13. Pittsburgh 14. Washington, D.C. 15. Bellevue, Wash.; 16. Columbia, S.C.; 17. St. Louis, Mo.; 18. Cincinnati; 19. Portland, Ore.; 20. Atlanta

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