Philadelphia Ranks As One Of The Best Cities For Book Lovers

What makes a great environment for reading? Regardless of your answer, Philadelphia book lovers seem to be in a great place. Recently, Lawn Lovers detailed the best cities for book enthusiasts and ranked in the top 10.

Comparing 500 of the biggest cities in America, Lawn Lovers "looked at access to bookstores, libraries, and book clubs, among 16 total metrics." From there, a score was assigned, enabling an official ranking to be compiled.

The four categories studied to qualify a city as good or bad for book lovers were books for sale, book rental, special access, and community.

In Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, we are lucky, given many of the parks and common areas are inviting for a quiet place to sit down and get lost in a book. You have also have to consider that the city welcomes a lot of commuters from suburban areas. Reading a good book on the train ride into or out of the city is a popular way to pass the time.

Of course, these days, people have a wide range of ways to access a book. Though the argument can be made that nothing tops the tradition of having the novel in your hands and first cracking it open, reading via a tablet or smartphone allows for more opportunities for convenient reading.

Only New York City ranked higher in the northeast region. Coming in behind Seattle, Philadelphia scored very high in special access, book rental, and the books for sale category. In fact, all three were in the top 10.

Philaelphia has been home to several writers: Edgar Allan Poe lived in Philadelphia, from 1838 to 1844. And there are also present day authors with Philadelphia roots. Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook, and New York Times bestselling author, Jennifer Weiner, for example.

Book lovers in Philadelphia can find themselves in a very welcoming environment. For example, cafe's like Uncle Bobbies Coffee and Books are great places to openly write and read. In addition, this past summer, Visit Philadelphia even put together an extensive guide to local bookstores. "The heart of literary Philly lies in its legacy of — and love for — independent bookstores," they said.

They also detail unique book stores in the greater area where customers can come across some of the coolest setups in the country. This includes Baldwin's Book Barn which "has been offering used, rare and fine books (along with manuscripts, maps, paintings, prints and more)."

This month of April is no joke, with a whole new batch of movies and TV shows going to be added to all of your favorite streaming services. As we saw in March, new television series like 3 Body Problem, The Regime, and The Gentlemen were highly anticipated. Spaceman, Ricky Stanicky, Damsel, Road House, and Wonka were among the new films that marched into streamers, giving a little bit of something for everybody.

Netflix, Max, Hulu, Peacock, AppleTV+, Paramount+, and Prime Video all have a slew of new additions set for April 2024, and we've compiled a list of all of those highly-anticipated shows and films that are noteworthy.

On AppleTV+, the second season of Maya Rudolph's comedy series, Loot, premieres on April 3. The sitcom follows the story of the aftermath of Molly Novak's (Rudolph) divorce from her tech billionaire husband (Adam Scott) of 20 years and what she wants to do with her $87 billion settlement. Season two will debut with two episodes, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through May 29.

Over on Netflix, the second half of Zack Snyder's space opera Rebel Moon will be making its world premiere. In 2023's Part One: A Child of Fire, the story follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a lone-wolf soldier who’s found community and connection on the quiet farming moon of Veldt. She’s a long way away from her former life fighting for the Imperium, the brutal interstellar royal empire bent on controlling the galaxy. But Kora’s violent past is dredged up when sadistic admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) comes to Veldt via a Dreadnought-class battle cruiser and stirs up deadly trouble on the orders of the Imperium’s tyrannical regent, Balisarius (Fra Fee). Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver is set to debut on April 19th.

Keep scrolling to see what new titles are coming to streaming in April 2024:

This black-and-white thriller series stars Andrew Scott as protagonist Tom Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling Tom Ripley novels. Set in Italy in the ’60s, the eight-episode limited series follows grifter Ripley in New York, who is hired by a wealthy industrialist to travel to Italy to try to convince the man’s dilettante son, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), to return home. Accepting the job is Tom’s first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud, and murder. Ripley premieres April 4 on Netflix.

Starring Colin Farrell, Sugar is a modern take on the classic noir detective story, set in California. Farrell plays John Sugar, a private investigator trying to track down the granddaughter of a Hollywood producer. As Sugar gets closer to the answers he needs, the case begins to unravel, as he uncovers deeply buried secrets certain powerful forces don’t what him finding out. The eight-episode drama debuts on AppleTV+ on April 5.

One of the most highly-anticipated video game adaptations is arriving mid-month. Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan has presented the series adaptation of Fallout, set to stream on Prime Video on April 11th. The series was first announced in 2020, set in post-apocalyptic US. Survivors are desperately trying to rebuild and salvage some semblance of civilization, while the barren wasteland of America is marked by radiation, mutated creatures and unfriendly encounters around every corner. All episodes of the first season are being released at once.

A Pulitzer Prize-winner for Fiction, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of a double agent in the wake of the Vietnam War. Max will begin streaming the HBO adaption of the political spy thriller. Set during the culmination of the Vietnam War in 1975, a French-Vietnamese spy (played by Australian Hoa Xuande), has infiltrated the South Vietnamese army but is forced to flee to the US as a refugee once the South falls. Xuande’s character must then decide between his loyalties to his political beliefs and his loyalties to his adopted community – which he continues to spy on. Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh also make appearances in the series, which drops on Max on April 14.

Based on the best-selling 1997 true-crime book of the same name by the late Rebecca Godfrey, the series follows the story of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), who went to join friends at a party and never returned home. Through the eyes of Godfrey (Riley Keough) and a local police officer (Lily Gladstone), the mini-series takes us into the hidden world of the young girls accused of the murder — revealing startling truths about the unlikely killer. Under the Bridge will premiere on Hulu on April 17.