Sunshine, Beaches and Books: Californians Are Readers

California was, again, the most well-read state in the nation with three cities making on Amazon.com annual list of the Most Read-Read Cities in America.

The three cities are: San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose. And Californians are becoming more bookworms, both San Francisco and San Diego moved up three spots from last year, and San Jose rose up two spots. The online book retailer said it based its rankings on sales data from April 2015 to April 2016.

As for why not more Golden State towns made it on the list, the Amazon said it only tracks data for cities with more than 500,000 residents and includes purchases of all books, magazines and newspapers in both Kindle and print format.

Amazon said it hopes the list will spur residents to start their summer readings.

“Summer has just begun and we hope we can help readers discover their next favorite books and contribute to their cities’ well-read ranking,” Amazon’s editorial director Sara Nelson said.

Amazon also found some interesting trends among the top-20 well-read cities:

• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was the top-selling Kindle and print title in five of the top 10 cities: Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Tucson, Arizona.; Albuquerque, New Mexico.; San Diego.
• Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Albuquerque, all channeled their inner child this year, with adult coloring books being among the top-selling print titles in each of the cities.
• What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, with Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian (Fifty Shades of Grey Series) as the top-selling Kindle title in Sin City.

Here are the complete rankings:

1. Seattle
2. Portland, Oregon.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. San Francisco
5. Austin, Texas
6. Las Vegas
7. Tucson, Arizona.
8. Denver
9. Albuquerque, New Mexico
10. San Diego
11. Baltimore, Maryland.
12. Charlotte, North Carolina
13. Louisville, Kentucky
14. San Jose, California
15. Houston
16. Nashville, Tennessee
17. Chicago
18. Indianapolis
19. Dallas
20. San Antonio, Texas

—Photo via Shutterstock