The list about America's most and least literate cities has little to do with actual literacy rates.

Central Connecticut State University has come out with their annual list of most and least literate American cities, a collection of urban centers ranked according to...uhh...how often they use a Kindle? How often they rent books from a library? How many bookstores they have? Newspaper circulations? College degrees attained?

In essence, the focus is supposed to be on how a city reads, not if the city can actually read. If you're illiterate, yet borrowing books from the library, you're considered literate based on this study.

The lists:

Most:
1.  Washington, D.C.
2.  Seattle, WA
3.  Minneapolis, MN
4.  Atlanta, GA
5.  Pittsburgh, PA
6.  Denver, CO
7.  St. Paul MN
8.  Boston, MA
9.  St. Louis, MO
10.  San Francisco, CA


Least:
1.  Bakersfield, CA
2.  Corpus Christi, TX
3.  Stockton, CA
4.  El Paso, TX
5.  San Antonio, TX
6.  Anaheim, CA
7.  Chula Vista, CA
8.  Fresno, CA
9.  Aurora, CO
10.  Mesa, AZ


Clearly, Alabama needs to step up its game if the rest of America is going to keep mocking it.





Also, California being an illiterate mess? It might be because of state budgetary issues, where state funding has crippled local libraries, shuttering them recently. That hardly makes millions of Californians crippled readers.