>> Do you know if there's any correlation between the number of bookstores in a city and the amount people in those cities read? Is it possible that more expensive but also more ubiquitous books leads to more books being read, or are price and readership always inversely correlated?

I would say they are always inversely correlated if you are poor.

Why shouldn’t they get to own books like you can, without paying above market prices so middle-class people can have nice spaces?

Why? If you are poor you probably also have less real estate and so purchasing a non-trivial quantity of books is less convenient than borrowing.

Also not sure why you blast that sexism around.

Actually, you don't need to own a book to read it. We in Germany have a great concept for this, its called: Library, You can go to your local community library and decide to either read the book there or to take it home and read it where ever you like. The rent for the first 2 weeks or sometimes the first 4 weeks is free of charge.

These libraries these days even not only have books to rent out. They have online-books, games (like those physical games to interact physically with other people you like), and other medias.

Even the membership in those community libraries is mostly free of charge, with a few exceptions.