Cambridge Buys More Print Books on Amazon Than Any Other (Small) City
Maybe it’s all of the Harvard and MIT students, intellecutally stimulated residents, and the fact that Amazon.com has a satellite office there. But whatever the reason, Cambridge is one of the most “well-read” cities in the country, and its residents purchase more print books when compared to other cities its size.
Kicking off the summer reading season, Amazon released its fourth annual “Most Well-Read Cities in America” list this month, and sitting amongst the top 10 places where people enjoy getting learned the most was Cambridge. “Our annual ‘Most Well-Read Cities’ list shows that reading continues to be a passion for people from coast to coast,” said Sara Nelson, editorial director of print and Kindle books at Amazon. “This…marks the start of the summer reading season, so we hope customers find a great book to enjoy and help contribute to their city’s well-read status.”
The rankings compiled by the online retailer are based on the sales data of all books, magazines, and newspapers in both print and the Kindle format, according to the company. The information is centered on an entire year, spanning from April 2013 to April 2014, and based on a per-capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.
Looking more closely at Amazon’s data, the company found that while Alexandria, Virginia, bought the most books as a whole, Cambridge purchased the most print books from the website, skipping the option to go digital. Knoxville, Tennessee, bought the most Kindle books from the company. “Cambridge 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,” the company said.
Thankfully, 50 Shades of Grey didn’t top the city’s list.
Cambridge can add the bookworm accolades to their growing list of honors. In 2012, a report by the Human Rights Campaign, which graded 137 municipalities across the country, named the city among the top in terms of LGBT equality. This year, real estate company Movoto even claimed that Cambridge was the “most exciting” suburb in the country for people to live, when looking at and comparing nightlife, fast food, and “active life” events with what other places have to offer.
