Alexandria ranks at the top of the Most Well-Read Cities in America

Published May 20, 2014 by Robert Powell, III

Alexandria has topped a list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America for the third year in a row.

Richmond was ranked 19th in the list compiled by Amazon.com.

The list is based on book, magazine and newspaper sales in print and Kindle format on a per-capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.

The latest list, Amazon.com’s fourth, covers the period from April 2013 to April 2014.

The Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities are:

1. Alexandria
2. Miami
3. Knoxville, Tenn.
4. Seattle
5. Orlando
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
7. Berkeley, Calif.
8. Cambridge, Mass.
9. Cincinnati
10. Columbia, S.C.
11. St. Louis
12. Pittsburgh
13. Vancouver, Wash.
14. Salt Lake City, Utah
15. Atlanta
16. Gainesville, Fla.
17. Dayton, Ohio
18. Clearwater, Fla.
19. Richmond
20. Tallahassee, Fla.

In compiling the list, Amazon also found that:

• “Inferno” by Dan Brown was the best-selling book overall in Alexandria, Va., followed by “Divergent” by Veronica Roth and “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt.
• While Alexandria bought the most books overall, Cambridge, Mass. bought the most print books, and Knoxville, Tenn. purchased the most Kindle books.
• Seattle made the biggest gain this year, jumping from the No. 13 spot in 2013 to No. 4 this year.
• Looking only at cities with more than 1 million residents, San Diego, Calif. is the most well-read.