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Alexandria, Virginia is the most well-read city in America. What other cities are on the list?

Amazon.com recently released their fourth annual list of the most well-read cities in America. Alexandria, Virginia topped the list for the most well-read city in America.

Amazon crowned Alexandria, VA as the most well-read city in America by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format from April 2013 to April 2014, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents. If you look at cities with more than 1 million residents, San Diego, Calif. is the most well-read, according to Amazon.com.

Virginia is for Lovers

If you’re not familiar with Alexandria, VA here are the pertinent details from Wikipedia:

Alexandria (formerly Belhaven and Hunting Creek Warehouse)[3] is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,966,[4] in 2013, the population was estimated to be 151,218.[5] Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles (9.6 kilometers) south of downtown Washington, D.C.

Like the rest of Northern Virginia, as well as central Maryland, modern Alexandria has been shaped by its proximity to the nation’s capital. It is largely populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, in the U.S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government. One of Alexandria’s largest employers is the U.S. Department of Defense. Others include the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Center for Naval Analyses. In 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved to Alexandria.

So, what other cities made the list of most well-read cities in America? Drum roll, please.

2. Miami, Fla.

3. Knoxville, Tenn.

4. Seattle, Wash.

5. Orlando, Fla.

6. Ann Arbor, Mich.

7. Berkeley, Calif.

8. Cambridge, Mass.

9. Cincinnati, Ohio

10. Columbia, S.C.

11. St. Louis, Mo.

12. Pittsburgh, Penn.

13. Vancouver, Wash.

14. Salt Lake City, Utah

15. Atlanta, Ga.

16. Gainesville, Fla.

17. Dayton, Ohio

18. Clearwater, Fla.

19. Richmond, Va.

20. Tallahassee, Fla.

In taking a closer look at the data, 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. Divergent was the most-read book by Goodreads users in Alexandria.

While Alexandria, Va. bought the most books overall, Cambridge, Mass. bought the most print books, and Knoxville, Tenn. purchased the most Kindle books.

Seattle, Wash.—home to Amazon.com’s corporate headquarters—made the biggest gain this year, jumping from the #13 spot in 2013 to #4.

Cambridge, Mass. continues to grow more budding entrepreneurs than any other city, ordering the most books in the Business & Investing category. Top titles include Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and perennial best seller StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath.

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