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

Of course the rankings are only based on Amazon.com sales and there are plenty of other places to purchase and borrow reading material. Nevertheless, it’s always fun to review lists like this one when you understand the caveats and purpose.
Amazon.com releases this list to help promote the summer reading season.
Below the list are a few “fast facts” about some of the top-ranked cities.
From Amazon.com:

The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since June 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.

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

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

• Berkeley, Calif., is a city full of jet-setters – it topped the list by ordering the most Travel books.
• Boulder, Colo., keeps the closest eye on its waistline by topping the list of cities that order the most books in the Health, Fitness & Dieting category.
• Virginia is for lovers – Alexandria, Va., that is, which tops the charts in the Romance book category.
• Cambridge, Mass., grows the most budding entrepreneurs. These locals topped the list for ordering the most books in the Business & Investing category.

Filed under: Data Files, Publishing, Resources