Ann Arbor Near Top of “Most Well Read Cities” List

Amazon has compiled a list of the “most well read cities,” based on the per capita purchases of books, magazines and e-editions. Amazon is using its own internal sales data, of course. The list is for towns of over 100,000.

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

You can read about it on the New Yorker.

The New Yorker articles suggests that larger towns might not be on the list because they are well-armed with bookstores, and that perhaps smaller towns purchase more on the internet. There’s no shortage of bookstore in Ann Arbor, though. We have the big box bookstores, including the flagship Borders, as well as a very large selection of smaller specialty stores, including ones that focus on mysteries, history and hippie books.

I certainly do my share of book buying, both at brick-and-mortar store and online.