America's Most Literate Cities

Here's a little tidbit pertaining to the intellectual life of cities. Or at least according to Central Connecticut State University. In this year's list of America's Most Literate cities, Washington, D. C. topped the list.

The choices were made, by the way, based on the rankings of American cities with a population of 250,000 or more, in six categories: bookstores, educational attainment, internet resources, literary resources, newspaper circulation, and periodical publication.

Seattle, Washington, which topped the list last year, came in second and for those who care, New York City came in 26th and Philadelphia came in 31.5. One sad note, according to Connecticut State University University President, Dr. John Miller, "At the beginning of this survey, in 2003, newspapers in America's larger cities had a weekly circulation equivalent to 55% of the population of the cities; Sunday circulation was 75%. Now on average, less than one third read a weekday paper and less than half read a Sunday paper."

On a personal note, I am delighted that Washington, D.C., which is represented in our book, as well as San Francisco (6th), Boston (12th) and Chicago (28th) are all considered "literary." Surely that has to be good for sales!