D.C. Suburb Tops List of Most "Well-Read" U.S. Cities

Miami, meanwhile, came in a surprise sixth on Amazon's annual list.

143818170
Miami came in sixth on Amazon's most well-read city list

Photo by Christophe Simon/AFP/GettyImages.

Amazon is out with its annual list of the most "well-read" cities in America. Coming in at No. 1: D.C. suburb Alexandria, Va.

While university towns like Cambridge, Mass., and Berkeley, Calif., came in a not-so-shocking second and third place, respectively, the results did come with a surprise or two. Miami (aka the city that parties "all night on the beach 'til the break of dawn") came in sixth, two places ahead of Gainesville, home of the 50,000-student University of Florida. Orlando, meanwhile, came in 14th, giving the Sunshine State three cities in the top-20 list.

Amazon's annual survey compiles "data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since June 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 reside." So while the online retailer offers up the "well-read" title, maybe something like "biggest book-buying" cities may be more appropriate.

Here’s the full top 20:

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

MYSLATE
MySlate is a new tool that lets you track your favorite parts of Slate. You can follow authors and sections, track comment threads you're interested in, and more.