You might be surprised by Las Vegas’ ranking on this list

California tourists, from top, Kaylee Aizenstadt, Mercedes Hineman and Amanda Bryant, relax by the Riviera pool Wednesday, April 22, 2015. The casino, which opened on April 20, 1955, closed May 4.

 

By Kailyn Brown
June 2, 2015 | 4:27 p.m.

When you think about Las Vegas, known for its lavish hotels, oversized alcoholic beverages and showgirls, “bookish” is probably not a word that comes to mind.

But according to Amazon.com, that’s exactly what we are.

Las Vegas was third on Amazon’s fifth annual “Most Well-Read Cities in America” list released today.

To arrive at its conclusion, Amazon compared per-capita sales of books, magazines and newspapers — in both print and Kindle formats — among cities with more than 500,000 residents. Our third-place ranking puts us behind Portland at No. 2 and first-place Seattle, the home of Amazon’s headquarters.

And that’s not all. According to the online retailer, our city of Elvis-themed chapels and burlesque shows purchased more romance titles per capita than any of the other 20 most populous cities.

So how is it that a city that consistently ranks among the worst nationally for K-12 education and almost last in high-value jobs made it onto such an esteemed list?

One answer could be the nearly 40 million tourists who visit the city each year, many of whom might forget to pack a book or magazine for poolside reading before heading out.

SOURCE: http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jun/02/you-might-be-surprised-las-vegas-ranking-list/