Via Shutterstock

Via Shutterstock

Alexandria residents should feel good about themselves today. According to Amazon, people who live in that colonial city across the Potomac are the nation’s most voracious when it comes to the written word. The online retail giant sold more books, magazines, and newspapers per capita to Alexandria than anywhere else last year.

Of course, it’s not as though Alexandria readers are particularly highbrow. The most popular tome was Gillian Flynn’s marital thriller Gone Girl, which received plenty of literary accolades. But claiming second, third, and fourth place on the local bestseller list were the three books in the Fifty Shades series.

Amazon’s rankings takes into account sales of physical and digital publications sold to cities with populations of at least 100,000. And while Alexandria might bill itself as a charming satellite city of the nation’s capital, filled with historical sites and intellectual gatherings, it appears it also loves its seamy, bondage-filled fantasies.