Bay Area Residents Most Well-Read in California

By ALEXANDER NGUYEN (Patch Staff)

Two Bay Area cities are named in the Amazon.com’s annual list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America, making the region the most well-read in California.

San Francisco was ranked No. 7 and San Jose was ranked No. 13, respectively, on Amazon’s list. The online book retailer said it based its rankings on sales data from April 2014 to April 2015.

As for why Pinole and Hercules were not named on the list, Amazon said it only tracks data for cities with more than 500,000 residents.

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:

• Washington, D.C. residents prefer the print book.
• California is for readers with three cities making the top 20 list this year: San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose.
• Las Vegas is for lovers — their residents purchased the most romance titles.

Here’s the complete rankings:

1. Seattle
2. Portland, Ore.
3. Las Vegas
4. Tucson
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Austin, Texas
7. San Francisco
8. Albuquerque, N.M.
9. Denver
10. Louisville, Ky.
11. Charlotte, N.C.
12. Baltimore, Md.
13. San Diego
14. Houston
15. Indianapolis
16. San Jose, Calif.
17. Jacksonville, Fla.
18. San Antonio
19. Nashville, Tenn.
20. Chicago