An Ill literacy survey

When it comes to those surveys about cities that are the smartest and/or best-read, Minneapolis has dominated. So it comes as a shock to our ego that the Twin Cities don’t even make the top 20, in the “most well-read survey” from Amazon. Of course, by “well read,” Amazon means, “cities that ordered a lot of stuff from Amazon…”

1. Cambridge, Mass.

2. Alexandria, Va.

3. Berkeley, Calif.

4. Ann Arbor, Mich.

5. Boulder, Colo.

6. Miami

7. Salt Lake City

8. Gainesville, Fla.

9. Seattle

10. Arlington, Va.

11. Knoxville, Tenn.

12. Orlando, Fla.

13. Pittsburgh

14. Washington, D.C.

15. Bellevue, Wash.

16. Columbia, S.C.

17. St. Louis, Mo.

18. Cincinnati

19. Portland, Ore.

20. Atlanta

We’ll just remind Amazon that Minnesota not only has one, but two cities on the top 10 list of Most Literate Cities.

1 Washington, DC

2 Seattle, WA

3 Minneapolis, MN

4 Atlanta, GA

5 Pittsburgh, PA

6 San Francisco, CA

7 St. Paul, MN

8 Denver, CO

9 Portland, OR

10 St. Louis, MO

But only the Twin Cities, Denver, and San Francisco don’t appear on Amazon’s list.

The Culture Mob blog also points that Minneapolis is the top-5 in lists for most newspaper subscribers and most bookstores.