We personally will take Knoxville over Portland any day, because we enjoy this thing called sunshine. However, it's hard not to sometimes envy their somewhat deserved smugness - awesome bands, great public transportation, wonderful food and wine and coffee, free Nikes for every resident ... (We're pretty sure that's true. We think.) Sure, we have better weather, but otherwise?
Well, it turns out that Knoxville doesn't just top Portland in the number of sunny days per year. We are also a better-read city than Portland! And if that's not something to feel smug about, we don't know what is. In fact, Knoxville is supposedly the 11th best-read city in America - ahead of Orlando, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. (We should note that Knoxville is also ahead of Washington, D.C., but since Alexandria, Va., is second on the list, and Alexandria is in fact a D.C. suburb, we don't think it quite counts.)
Of course, this information is courtesy of Amazon, so it's not exactly that Knoxville is better-read than any of these places, it's that our residents order more books online. You'll note there are a number of college towns with large state schools in the list - Berkeley, Boulder, Ann Arbor, Columbia, S.C. - so we suspect the stats might be juked from the number of students ordering their textbooks online to save money. And we actually find the number one ranking of Cambridge, Mass., to be incredibly depressing, since Cambridge has some of the best damn bookstores in the country, and they are slowly closing one by one, breaking this reporter's heart just a little bit each time.
Still, though: Knoxville - Knoxville - is better-read than Portland. Just practice saying that. It feels good, doesn't it? It feels really good. Just pretend you didn't also see that Gainesville, Fla., is number 8 on the list, better-read than Seattle even. Because we all know there's no way that's true.
The full press release follows:
Amazon.com Reveals the Most Well-Read Cities in AmericaCambridge, Mass., tops the list with the most books, magazines and newspapers purchased per capita of any city in the United StatesSEATTLE, May 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Just in time for the summer reading season, Amazon.com announced its list of the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in America. After compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since Jan. 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents, the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities are:1. Cambridge, Mass. 11. Knoxville, Tenn.2. Alexandria, Va. 12. Orlando, Fla.3. Berkeley, Calif. 13. Pittsburgh4. Ann Arbor, Mich. 14. Washington, D.C.5. Boulder, Colo. 15. Bellevue, Wash.6. Miami 16. Columbia, S.C.7. Salt Lake City 17. St. Louis, Mo.8. Gainesville, Fla. 18. Cincinnati9. Seattle 19. Portland, Ore.10. Arlington, Va. 20. AtlantaIn taking a closer look at the data, Amazon.com also found that:Not only do they like to read, but they like to know the facts:Cambridge, Mass.--home to the prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology--also topped the list of cities that ordered the most nonfiction 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.Alexandria, Va., residents must be reading a lot of bedtime stories - they topped the list of the city that orders the most children's books.Summer reading weather all year long? Florida was the state with the most cities in the Top 20, with Miami, Gainesville and Orlando making the list."In anticipation of the summer reading season--one of our favorite times to catch up on pleasure reading and unwind with the new titles being published this season--we're excited to reveal the Most Well-Read City list," said Mari Malcolm, managing editor of Books, Amazon.com. "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."
Comments » 0
Be the first to post a comment!
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.