Across the country book stores have been closing their doors as more and more people opt to purchase their reading material online. Amazon has secured a seemingly ever increasing share in the market and has begun to leverage this new position. Recently, Amazon announced its list of America’s “Most Well Read Cities,” which is based on “sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format” for the calendar year to date for “cities with more than 100,000 residents.” The top 10 cities are
- Cambridge, Mass.
- Alexandria, Va.
- Berkeley, Calif.
- Ann Arbor, Mich.
- Boulder, Colo.
- Miami, Fla.
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Gainesville, Fla.
- Seattle, Wash.
- Arlington, Va.
So What?
Blogging for the New Yorker, Macy Halford explores what the top twenty cities hold in common. She notes that most have universities and are relatively wealthy. Additionally she admits the limitations of her analysis due to the data released and wonders what one might learn if only one were able to “see Amazon’s hard numbers and to see the data on what types of books are ordered by particular cities (by types I mean genre, edition—used or new—and format—print or digital) . . .”
- What is your initial impression of a list of America’s “Most Well Read Cities” that is based upon the sales of a single entity?
- If you were to construct a list of America’s Most Well Read Cities what criteria would you choose and why?
- How has the move from purchasing books and other reading material primarily in a store to primarily doing so online impacted your congregation, especially its Christian/Religious education ministry?