Book Lovers, Bookmark These Cities

Among the best U.S. cities for book lovers, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh fall in the top 15, according to an analysis by Lawn Love.

Lawn Love compared the 500 largest cities in the country based on four categories:

• Books for sale access, including bookstores, independent bookstores, used and rare bookstores and thrift stores per square mile
• Book rental access, including number of public libraries and bookmobiles
• Special access, including number of antique and rare bookstores, partially or completely fine-free libraries and braille libraries
• Community, including number of book clubs, silent book clubs, publishing houses and literary landmarks

An outlier, New York City topped the list of best cities for book lovers, scoring almost three times as high as subsequent locations at 89.53 out of 100. The city also ranked first in all four categories.

With a significantly lower score, but more comparable to the rest of the list, Philadelphia ranked No. 6, with a score of 26.97. Notably, Philly also ranked sixth for special access, seventh for book rental access and eighth for books for sale access.

A bit farther down, Pittsburgh ranked No. 12, scoring 20.50.

The top 10 best cities for bookworms included:

1. New York (89.53)
2. Chicago (35.05)
3. San Francisco (34.96)
4. Los Angeles (34.04)
5. Seattle (28.51)
6. Philadelphia (26.97)
7. Houston (24.95)
8. Washington (24.58)
9. Portland (23.44)
10. San Diego (22.83)