The late, great comedian Bill Hicks tells one of my favorite stories about reading.  Following one of his late night gigs, he stops at a Waffle House to eat.  Alone, he pulls out a book. A waitress comes up to him,  tray balanced expertly on her fingertips, peers over his shoulder and asks, “What are you reading for?” Not “What are you reading?”… “What are you reading…for.” 

Chances are, Hicks was in one of the towns listed below as the least literate in America. Recently, the Wall Street Journal crunched the numbers to make determinations about cities with the worst, and best, reading habits. The criteria for these determinations included weekly newspaper circulation rates, the percentage of adults with college degrees, the number of retail bookstores per 10,000 people, and the median income.

Least Literate:

1o.  Long Beach, California

9.  Mesa, Arizona

8.  Aurora, Colorado

7.  Fresno, California

6.  San Antonio, Texas

5.  Anaheim, California

4.  El Paso, Texas

3.  Stockton, California

2.  Corpus Christi, Texas

1.  Bakersfield, California

Most Literate:

10.  Portland, Oregon

9.  St. Louis, Missouri

8.  Atlanta, Georgia

7.  Boston, Massachusetts

6.  St. Paul, Minnesota

5.  Denver, Colorado

4.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

3.  Minneapolis, Minnesota

2.  Seattle, Washington

1.  Washington, D.C.