See note on methodology

This one is a slightly tough call, though I don’t think either of the options is surprising. The book most often tagged “Czech” on Goodreads and LibaryThing is a well-known novel of the Cold War, first published in French in 1984, and memorably filmed in English in 1988. It’s certainly the most widely-owned book on both LT and GR which was originally written in Czech. But in terms of number of owners, it ranks only second on GoodReads, and though it tops the ranking on LibraryThing, a bit of digging gives me suspicions which I will explain below. Anyway, it is:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being / Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí, by Milan Kundera

The top-ranked “Czech”-tagged book on Goodreads by ownership appears, appropriately enough, in a number of different shapes on LibraryThing (which is generally more fussy about keeping editions separate). Adding together the top ten (of dozens) of the various editions on LT, one easily surpasses the Prague Spring novel’s total, so I am counting it as the winner for today. Published in German in 1915, and possibly the shortest book I’ll mention in this series of posts at a mere 53 pages, it is of course:

The Metamorphosis / Die Verwandlung, by Franz Kafka

Close behind those two – but clearly behind both – is another tale of Habsburg paranoia by the same writer, published in 1925, the year after his death. It is:

The Trial / Der Process, by Franz Kafka
(NB he always used the spelling “Process”, though standard German is of course “Prozeß”.)

Bubbling under: Jaroslav Hašek, Bohumil Hrabal, Karel Čapek

• Sun, 12:30: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2015�CS, ~14m-31m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 9km/s, missing by ~1,290,000km. http://t.co/Zpw17wSGCO
• Sun, 12:44: RT @djm4: I personally witnessed several people who signed this letter trying to shout down @auntysarah at @dykemarch. Humbug. http://t.co/…
• Sun, 12:52: RT @viEUws: This week’s #EUtweets – The Good, the Sad & the Ugly in the EU Twittersphere | WATCH VIDEO: http://t.co/MLILqkX8UH http://t.co/…
• Sun, 16:05: Sunday walk! (@ Monarkengraf) https://t.co/AKp4l39VyP http://t.co/qnYVUM7G9B
• Sun, 19:09: What is the best-known book set in Greece? http://t.co/9A9Fxv4fKo
• Sun, 20:48: “Free Speech” vs “Freedom from Criticism” http://t.co/a2hEJraUDL Another rebuttal.
• Sun, 23:55: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2015�CL13, ~18m-41m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 14km/s, missing by ~778,000km. http://t.co/rKFnCe8CYl
• Mon, 07:42: Thanks for early bus at 0740 in Oud-Heverlee, @delijn, but timetable says 0742 so I missed it.
• Mon, 10:45: Whatever This Nonsense Letter is Complaining About, it is Not Censorship http://t.co/cUfUIl81PM A rebuttal.

See note on methodology

I fear that the books I have identified so far for some countries are not always terribly highbrow, but I don’t think anyone can really have grounds for complaint here. Although it does wander round the eastern Mediterranean a bit, with excursions into completely imaginary geography, most of the places described – and, crucially, the start and finish of the book – are set firmly on territory which is today part of the Hellenic Republic. It’s the book most often tagged “Greece” on LibraryThing and Goodreads, and it’s far ahead of any other books set in Greece in terms of ownership. (With a small caveat explained below.) It is, of course:

The Odyssey / Ὀδύσσεια, by Homer

Once I rule out certain books for being insufficiently set in Greece (or not at all – those being Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Republic by Plato), the clear second place goes to a play of the classical era – with the wrinkle that on its own it does much better on Goodreads, but bound with two other plays by the same author with a closely related historical setting it does much better on LibraryThing. It is:

Oedipus Rex / Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, by Sophocles

The top modern book set in Greece is a 1994 work by a British novelist with a French name, which was adapted for film in 2003. It is of course:

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin / Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernières.

I think that’s all very satisfying.

See note on methodology

This is one of the tough cases where Goodreads and LibraryThing between them deliver a consistent ranking of books tagged “Belgium” by their users, but there is good reason to challenge the Belgianness of, well, most of the leaders. To start with, two classics – one published in 2004, one in 1847-8 – which both feature lengthy and memorable passages set in Belgium (in 1931 and 1815 respectively), but these are far from being the majority of the book:

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray

Next up is an 1853 novel set in the fictional capital of a fictional kingdom (French-speaking, but with its own local language too). It’s pretty obvious, even without knowing the author’s personal history, that the kingdom is Belgium and the capital is Brussels. However, I feel a slight reluctance to list this as a book properly set in Belgium, since the correct name of the country is never used. It is:

Villette, by Charlotte Brontë

Next is a Pulitzer-winning non-fiction book published in 1962 and covering events of just over a century ago. The scope is all over Europe, but again some of the most memorable passages are set in Belgium – not just in Belgium, but in the university city near which I live. It is:

The Guns of August / August 1914, by Barbara Tuchman

Next is a 2003 novel by an English writer, set in the fifteenth century. Around half of it is set in Brussels, which is certainly now in Belgium; but a very large chunk is set in Paris, where the artwork referred to in the title is commissioned and where it is to be found today. One might raise the Iliad problem also, in that the setting long predates the current name of the country. The novel is:

The Lady and the Unicorn, by Tracy Chevalier

Next is the book most frequently tagged “Belgium” by both Goodreads and LibraryThing readers. A non-fiction work published in 1998, it is certainly very much concerned with Belgium and has a brutally effective portrayal of the Belgian ruler identified in the book’s title. However, it is really concerned with events on another continent, managed though they were from Belgium. It is:

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, by Adam Hoschschild

And now we run into real problems of definition, and also the LT and GR rankings are well out of step. The next book which is clearly set in Belgium for all but the first few chapters is by the same author as the 1853 book; written earlier, it was published only in 1857, two years after her death. It is:

The Professor, by Charlotte Brontë

It is jockeying for position with the best-known book by a Belgian writer, a 1999 novel which unfortunately for our purposes is mainly set in Japan:

Fear and Trembling / Stupeur et tremblements, by Amélie Nothomb

The top fiction book by a Belgian writer which is actually set in Belgium, as far as I can see, is a 1943 graphic novel – not the author’s best-known work, in that there are more popular volumes in the series set elsewhere in the world, but it is the top-ranked one set on home base. It is:

The Secret of the Unicorn / Le Secret de la Licorne, by Hergé

One other book that does very well in tagging, but much less well in ownership, is a 1983 autobiographical novel about life before, during and after the second world war: 

The Sorrow of Belgium / Het Verdriet van België, by Hugo Claus

I’ve left out a number of other contenders with really minimal Belgian content here. I guess I will choose the 1853 romance as the best answer to the question, but it’s not terribly satisfactory. 

O frabjous day! Both the BSFA and the Kitschies have published their shortlists for this year’s awards for SF. As I have done in previous years, here are the statistics for the number of owners, and the average rating, that each of the shortlisted novels has on LibraryThing and GoodReads.

First up, the BSFA, which has given us an unusually wide choice, eight novels due to a multiple tie for fourth place in the nominating process.

Last year, the BSFA Award had two winners, for the first time in its history. As the ratings stood on the day the shortlist was announced, Ancillary Justice was top on Goodreads and second on LibraryThing; Ack-Ack Macaque was third on GR and fourth, i.e. second last, on LT. These statistics may be a decent guide to what has already sold well, but only the vaguest of indications as to what will actually win.

A similar, if not stronger, warning applies to the Kitschies, where there are two shortlists to consider. The Red Tentacle, for best novel, consists of the following five books:

Again, two strong leaders, but this is a juried award, so even less likely to be reflective of purchasing patterns, and I note that The Race is rated highest by GR users and Lagoon by LT users. Having said that, last year the winner was indeed the leader by this system.

The Golden Tentacle, awarded by the Kitschies for best debut novel, also has five nominees, but here there is a very clear front-runner:

I am necessarily being a bit circumspect in my commentary this year, but I’ve read eleven of the sixteen books above, and enjoyed almost all of them.

See note on methodology

I was never in much doubt about this. But to clear one item out of the way, I am disqualifying the top book by ownership which is tagged “Netherlands” on GoodReads because only a small section (though important for the story) is set in Amsterdam; it is mostly about teenagers suffering from cancer in Indianapolis. It was published in 2012 and the film adaptation came out last year. It is:

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

Excluding that, there is a very clear winner by ownership on both LT and GR, also tagged “Netherlands” most on GR and second-most on LT, a non-fiction memoir of living in Amsterdam in desperate and tragic circumstances, written in 1942-44 and published in 1947, two years after the author’s death in Belsen. I suspect that she is the youngest writer who will feature in any of these posts, by quite a long way. I’m actually in the middle of reading it in the original Dutch at the moment. Needless to say, it is:

The Diary of a Young Girl / Het Achterhuis, by Anne Frank

One other book worth noting here is the one most often tagged “Netherlands” on LibraryThing, and with second most readers after the 1940s memoir. It’s a novel set in Delft around the life of Vermeer, ie the seventeenth century, published in 1999 and adapted for film in 2003. It is:

Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier

The best-known work of fiction, as opposed to non-fiction, by a Dutch writer set in the Netherlands appears to be a 2009 novel about two brothers out for dinner with their wives, discovering that their sons have done something dreadful. Apparently Cate Blanchett is even now directing an English-language film version. It is:

Het Diner / The Dinner, by Herman Koch.

Current
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy (a chapter a day)
Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week)
Het Achterhuis, by Anne Frank
Reckless Engineering, by Nick Walters
η4

Last books finished
Boerke bijbel, by Pieter De Poortere
ζ4
(Fewer than usual – am taking Het Achterhuis slowly!)

Last week’s audios
The Exxilons, by Nick Briggs
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, adapted by Dirk Maggs

Next books
Tree and Leaf, by J R R Tolkien
Transit of Earth
Dragon’s Wrath, by Justin Richards

See note on methodology

I have to apologise on behalf of Ireland to my Romanian friends here. There is one book that is the most frequently tagged “Romania” by Goodreads, and is also the most widely owned among such books by LT users (it is beaten on GR ownership by Elie Wiesel’s Night, but I have assigned that to Poland, and more LT users have tagged The Historian with “Romania”, but not much of it is set there). Although most of the book is actually set in England, the memorable beginning and end are firmly rooted in what is now Romania, and I think it’s a pretty clear answer to the modified question, “name the best known book that people in the wider English-speaking world think of as being set in Romania”. Published in 1897 by an Irish writer, it is of course:

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

It has spawned an awful lot of novels (and films, TV series, and other artistic endeavours) with a similar theme. Some of them claim to be set in Romania, but to be honest I shall just note the names of Jeaniene Frost, Beth Fantaskey and Meg Cabot and leave you to explore. The most promising of these books appears to be one by an Australian writer, set in early 1500s Transylvania and published in 2006:

Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier

The best-known book about Romania which is actually by a writer from Romania and set in her country of birth (she moved to Germany in 1987) was published in 1994 and probably helped win its author the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature. It is:

The Land of Green Plums / Herztier, by Herta Müller

On Goodreads, Romanian literature is in general better represented, and the top book set in Romania by a Romanian author is a 1938 novel of an unhappy love story:

Enigma Otiliei (“Otilia’s Riddle”), by George Călinescu

It doesn’t appear to have been translated into English.

See note on methodology

I’m afraid this is a fairly grim list. There is one historical event that took place mainly on what is Polish soil, and which has inspired a vast amount of searing literature. That was itself in the middle of a global conflict in the course of which Poland was first partitioned and then reassembled with its borders shifted substantially to the west. So it’s not very surprising that the top book by ownership on the list of books tagged “Poland” on LibraryThing and Goodreads is a memoir/novel largely set in Auschwitz and written by a survivor, though it starts in what is now Romania and ends at Buchenwald which is in Germany. Published in 1958. it is:

Night / La Nuit, adapted from the original longer Un di Velt Hot Geshvign, by Elie Wiesel.

The second book is also set at Auschwitz, but is very much a work of fiction (indeed it has been criticised for a number of implausibilities compared with the awful historical reality), and a lot of the action takes place in Berlin. By an Irish writer (which makes me somewhat uncomfortable – it wasn’t really our Holocaust to write about), published in 2006 with a 2008 film adaptation, it is:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne.

However, that only makes a clear second place if you count separately the different versions of the best-known graphic novel about the Holocaust, originally published in two volumes (published in 1986 and 1991) but these days more widely available as a single book (published in 2003). The combined ownership of the first volume and the combined book on LibraryThing exceeds the Irish author’s by some way, though it falls short on Goodreads. Its framing narrative is set in 1970s New York, but the main story is in Poland before and during the Second World War, with a small section in Germany. It is, of course:

Maus, by Art Spiegelman

These are the most widely owned books set in Poland; but they are not as frequently tagged “Poland” by LT and GR users as a non-fiction memoir by a Warsaw woman, who together with her husband was able to conceal and ultimately rescue several hundred Jews by imaginative utilisation of his place of work. It is:

The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman (based on the unpublished diary of Antonina Żabińska)

Bubbling under, The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss; Schindler’s List / Schindler’s Ark, by Thomas Kenneally; Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron; and many more. Edited to add: Also in this range, The Tin Drum, though a lot of it is set in post-war West Germany.

See note on methodology

It’s rare for there to be as clear a winner as in this case, and at least it is a book I have heard of, if not actually read. The book most frequently tagged Ukraine on both LibraryThing and Goodreads is also owned by far more users of both systems than any other book set in Ukraine. As with a lot of the Eastern European (and some of the Western European) winners, it’s a story very much in the shadow of the Holocaust, a novel published in 2002 and adapted for a 2005 film starring Elijah Wood as the central character (who has the same name as the book’s author). It is:

Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Next on the GoodReads ranking is a book for very young children – the first we’ve had aimed at that age range – which is a popular American adaptation of a Ukrainian folk-tale:

The Mitten, by Jan Brett

The book which is second most frequently tagged “Ukraine” on both systems is not as widely owned as the winner, and also has a substantial framing narrative set in England, but it was the one I personally thought might be the answer:

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka

The top-ranked author writing in Ukrainian is Andrey Kurkov.

• Imagine! | Who Cares About Voting and Identity?
  
  Come to my seminar on 9 March! #ImagineBelfast15
  (tags: northernireland elections )
• 10 Rules for a New Balkan Prince
  
  Florian Bieber channels Machiavelli.
  (tags: Balkans politics )

See note on methodology

You may have thought you knew the answer to this – I certainly thought I did. However, the users of Goodreads and LibraryThing, taken en masse, do not always have the same tastes as you or me (this may have become apparent in previous posts). On both systems, the book most widely owned which has a partially Spanish setting is a tedious undergraduate philosophy essay disguised as a Meaningful Story which has won the hearts of millions (my apologies if you are one of them), and is the world’s most translated book by a living author. I’m disqualifying it on the grounds that only the beginning is set in Spain, the rest being concerned with a journey to Egypt across the Sahara. Originally written in Portuguese by a Brazilian, it is:

The Alchemist / O Alquimista, by Paolo Coelho

I believe we are on firmer ground with the book that is most frequently tagged “Spain” on both systems, and is second to the Brazilian work by number of owners on LibraryThing and third on GoodReads, a story set both in the present day and around the Spanish Civil War. I haven’t read it myself but it’s high on my reading pile. I rather wish I had read it while I was working on Catalonia where it is apparently set (so this would also win a separate question of the best-known book set in Catalonia). Apparently there is a small section set in Paris; I’ll report back after I’ve read it on whether that is sufficient to raise doubts. Published in 2001, it is:

The Shadow of the Wind / La sombra del viento, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

By number of owners, that book is very close to another three, one being the one I myself would have first thought of, and the other two of which are by the same (American) author. Second on Goodreads, fourth on LibaryThing, is a novel partly set in Paris and on the French side of the Pyrenees, but with the most memorable parts firmly in Pamplona, a story of the time it was written (1926). You may feel that not enough of it is set in Spain to qualify, but I would give it a pass. It is:

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

Third on LibraryThing, fifth on Goodreads, and tagged “Spain” more often than any book except the one set in Barcelona, is the book I personally would have thought of as the obvious answer to the question. Published 400 years ago, it was the top-rated novel of all time in a survey carried out by the Norwegian Book Clubs back in 2002. I guess its sheer size must put off a number of readers (it as long as the other four listed here combined), which is perhaps why it doesn’t rank higher. It is, of course:

Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

With slightly more readers on Goodreads and slightly fewer on LibraryThing than the seventeenth-century classic, the last book is set during the Spanish Civil War by a writer who actually fought in it. It is of course:

For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

Bubbling under: George Orwell, Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

• BBC News – Maps that shaped the world
  
  Thanks, redfiona99!
  (tags: maps )

See note on methodology

I have to be honest with you. I felt I could get away with disqualifying the most-widely owned book which has been tagged “France” by the users of Goodreads and LibraryThing on the basis that, as well as being utter tosh, not all that much of it is set in France. Unfortunately, the top-ranked book, by users on both LT and GR, which is tagged “Italy” by those users is, in fact, mostly set there (apart from some initial throat-clearing). So although it is even worse rubbish than The Da Vinci Code, I fear we have to face the fact that the best-known book set in Italy is, like it or not:

Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

If your brain understandably recoils from that finding, I can offer you some other possibilities. The second-placed book on LT set in Italy (mostly on a small island off the coast, during the Second World War) is some way behind on LT, and deals with actual Italians only in rather stereotyped fashion, the emphasis mainly being on the American main characters. I still like it though. It is:

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

Next up on both systems is a love story set (mostly) in a northern Italian city that somehow fails to mention that city’s most famous landmark, its massive huge Roman amphitheatre. The plot depends on some implausibly convenient logistical and pharmaceutical coincidences. But it remains ever popular, and I have to admit it’s still a favourite of mine. Italians will not really recognise the depiction of their country, but it is:

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

The next-ranked book, on both systems, is a non-fiction voyage of self-discovery which is only partly set in Italy. My friend Andy really hated it, and having read (and listened to) his views on the subject, I have no inclination to try it for myself. But it obviously works for some people. It is:

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

I’m glad to say that on LibraryThing at least, the next-ranked book is a work of non-fiction which draws universal lessons from (then-)recent political events, mainly (though not entirely) in Italy. It’s also mercifully short and well worth reading. It is a decent contender for the best-known book set in Italy written in Italian by an actual Italian writer. It is:

Il Principe/The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli

The top-ranked work of fiction which is set in Italy and written in Italian by an actual Italian writer on Goodreads is another one I very much like, The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco. A Farewell To Arms ranks ahead of it on both GR and LT, and GR readers are also more likely to own Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. I disqualify a number of other books which are frequently tagged “Italy” on both systems due to an insufficiently Italian setting: The Godfather is mainly set in America, and Dante’s Inferno is almost entirely set in Hell.

• How the UK immigration system damaged my mental health
  
  A system set up to pander to xenophobia.
  (tags: ukpolitics migration libdems )

See note on methodology

France presented me with some very interesting issues. The top book, by number of owners, tagged “France” on both Librarything and GoodReads does indeed have a substantial chunk in the middle set in France, but starts in England and finishes in Scotland. It is also such a complete load of rubbish that I am very reluctant to recognise it in any way, even though it is one of the best-known books published this century. I disqualify it on the grounds of being insufficiently French in setting, and also only barely a book by any reasonable aesthetic judgement, but for the record it is:

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

The second-ranked book, by number of owners, which is tagged “France” on both Librarything and GoodReads is not at all rubbish; it’s one of the great works of children’s literature. But it slightly fails the test of being set in France, due to being partly in a desert but mainly in outer space. It is, of course:

Le Petit Prince/The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The third-ranked book on LibraryThing (and most frequently tagged “France” on Goodreads, though it lags in number of owners) is by the second youngest ever winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and it is on lots of French literature reading lists due to being fairly linguistically accessible and also mercifully short. But the fact is that the entirety of the novel (as far as I remember from reading it thirty years ago) is set in Algeria, so I don’t think it can qualify for my purposes; even if Algeria was France then, it isn’t now (cf Turkey and several other countries to come). It is, of course:

L’Étranger/The Stranger/The Outsider, by Albert Camus

The fourth-placed book on LibraryThing, and third on Goodreads, which has been tagged “France” by users on either system, is set only partly in France. Sure, the beginning and end of the book (and most of the memorable passages) are set there, but a substantial chunk in the middle is set in England, and the very title betrays that the focus is on the capitals of both countries, not just one. According to Wikipedia, it is the best-selling single-volume book ever. With slightly heavy heart – because I love this book! – I feel I must disqualify it for not quite being French enough, but you may feel differently. It is, of course:

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

The book that I reckon deserves the title of best-known book [entirely] set in France was published three years later than the book I have just mentioned, in 1862, and is about three times as long. Of books tagged “France” on either system, it ranks fourth on GoodReads and fifth on LibraryThing by number of owners. Shortly after publication, the author, concerned about sales, sent a telegram to his publishers which consisted in its entirety of a single character: “?” The publishers replied: “!” It has been filmed a dozen times, including three in the last twenty years, and is the basis of a very successful musical. And I have to confess that I love this book too. It is, of course:

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

The tagging system on both LibraryThing and Goodreads is more than usually deceptive in this case. The book most often tagged “France” on LibraryThing is one which I’m sorry to say I had never heard of, a novel of France under German occupation in the Second World War, not quite half completed before its author was killed in Auschwitz, and published eventually in 2006. It is:

Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky

Bubbling under: The Count of Monte Cristo, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Madame Bovary.

• UK General Election – What Do The Polls Actually Tell Us?
  
  My colleague Chris Levy analyses.
  (tags: ukpolitics )
• The Map in the High Castle
  
  How far west would the Reich have reached?
  (tags: maps )
• Ukip to run city council veteran in South Belfast
  
  (tags: Probably good news for @AlasdairMcD_MP / @SDLPlive. )
• Wikipedia Gamergate scandal: How a bad source made Wikipedia wrong about itself
  
  Latest wiki lunacy.
  (tags: wikipedia )
• The Most Common Job In Every State
  
  Mapping the changes.
  (tags: usa )

Current
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy (a chapter a day)
Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week)
Boerke bijbel, by Pieter De Poortere
Het Achterhuis, by Anne Frank

Last books finished
The Flag Dispute: Anatomy of a Protest by Paul Nolan, Dominic Bryan, Clare Dwyer, Katy Hayward, Katy Radford & Peter Shirlow
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, by Alice Munro
β4
Bétélgeuse, v2: Les Survivants, by Leo
γ4
δ4 
I Don’t Know How She Does It, by Allison Pearson
Warmonger, by Terrance Dicks
ε4 – did not finish

Last week’s audios
The Rani Elite, by Justin Richards

Next books
Tree and Leaf, by J R R Tolkien
Transit of Earth
Reckless Engineering, by Nick Walters

• Nathalie Cassiers, 1980-2014
  
  Very sorry to hear that we lost @wordofwyrd, , back in October. She was a wonderful, passionate writer, and will be missed.
  (tags: death belgium )

• 20 essential job interview tips
  
  Hilarious!
  (tags: careersadvice funny )

See note on methodology

The winner here is reasonably clear. The most widely owned book on GoodReads which is set in Germany, and the second most widely owned on LibraryThing, is also the book most frequently tagged “German” by the users of both systems. It was published in 2005, and made into a 2013 film. The narrator is a supernatural being (or perhaps a primal entity), but the story is otherwise grittily realistic. It is set in Munich during the Second World War. It is:

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

As mentioend above, there is one other book with a German setting, also during the Second World War, which is owned by more people on LibraryThing. However, the German setting is only one passage (admittedly the most memorable one) in a book which also passes through wartime Belgium and Luxembourg, 1960s America (it was published in 1969) and an alien planet where humans are displayed in a zoo. It is, of course:

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, by Kurt Vonnegut

The third, fourth and fifth most frequently tagged books on both systems are the same, though in slightly different order. Third on LibraryThing, fourth on Goodreads, is another Second World War novel, published in 1995 and made into a film in 2008. It is:

The Reader/Der Vorleser, by Bernhard Schlink

Third on Goodreads, but fifth on LibraryThing, is a novel of the First World War rather than the Second. Published in 1928/29, it was adapted into a famous film with the same title in 1930, and was of course burned by the Nazi regime. It is:

All Quiet on the Western Front/Im Westen nichts Neues, by Erich Maria Remarque

And in fourth place on LibraryThing, fifth on GoodReads, is a historical work published in 1960, a comprehensive effort to address not only the Second World War but also its causes:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, by William Shirer

Apologies to Günter Grass, Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann, who I had hoped to see doing better.

• Circular Economy – Open Circuit
  
  @APCOworldwide colleagues @ehoffm4nn and @AlbrehtT look at waste, recycling, incineration and the EU…
  (tags: eu environment )
• Gay Life in NI if the Conscience Clause Were Enacted
  
  @gerrylynch on the reality.
  (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality northernireland )
• The Cats of Copenhagen
  
  An illustrated children’s book by James Joyce.
  (tags: books )
• America’s Infrastructure Is Slowly Falling Apart
  
  Scary.
  (tags: uspolitics )

See note on methodology

Despite the richness of the field, there is a surprising convergence not just on the best-known book set in Russia, but on the top three spots. In order, the most widely-owned books set in Russia on both LibraryThing and GoodReads (all nineteenth-century classics) are:

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

At fourth place on GoodReads (fifth on LibraryThing) is a twentieth-century magical realist satire on Stalinism, written by a Ukrainian but clearly set in Moscow:

The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov

And on fourth place on Librarything (sixth on Goodreads, behind a bio of Catherine the Great) is my personal favourite work of Russian literature, though I suspect that its sheer size puts some readers off:

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.

Bubbling under: Solzhenitsyn, Zamyatin, Gogol, Nabokov.

• The empty promises giving hope to people in despair
  
  My favourite Cypriot commentator is savage this week.
  (tags: cyprus greece )

See note on methodology

My methodology has led to more than the usual amount of homework here. A lot of the books that are tagged "Northern Ireland" are not in fact all that popular, and I had to do some serious drilling to get the results by number of owners. Once I had done that, both LibraryThing and GoodReads threw up a number of false positives with books whose authors are from Northern Ireland (C.S. Lewis, Flann O'Brien, Maggie O'Farrell) or which discuss Northern Ireland without being set there (Trinity, gawd help us, by Leon Uris).

But I have ended up with two light novels, neither of which I have read but both of which I may give a try. The LibraryThing winner, first published in 2004, got re-released in 2007 and has been a huge hit in Canada (whose profound links with my homeland are not always appreciated). It is set in a thinly disguised Holywood, County Down, before the Troubles, and is the first in a series of ten books. It is:

An Irish Country Doctor, by Patrick Taylor.

From County Down we move to a fictional village in County Antrim ("the armpit of Antrim, on the north of the north coast of the north of Northern Ireland") for the GoodReads winner, also the first in a series, also published in the mid-2000's (2006 to be precise), a supposedly humorous mystery story about a Jewish immigrant to Ulster who is accused unjustly of Crime, which is also the book most often tagged “Northern Ireland” on both Goodreads and LibraryThing and therefore I suppose is today’s winner:

The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom

I find it interesting that both of them skirt the Troubles chronologically, one set before and the other after.

On LibraryThing, I may have to disqualify Transatlantic by Colum McCann because I think only a section of it is set in Northern Ireland. Next after that, and far ahead of the rest, is a childhood memoir and a Booker nominee, Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane. The second-ranked book on GoodReads is a Troubles thriller, The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville which I had not heard of.

The top non-fiction book on both systems is The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan.

Colin Bateman, Robert McLiam Wilson and Seamus Heaney are not too far down the list.

(After this I'm going to run through sovereign European states, in descending order of population – starting with Russia.)

• Macedonia Opposition Leader Charged With Spying
  
  Extraordinary news.
  (tags: macedonia )
• Putin’s Fantasy Island
  
  What the Russians are telling themselves.
  (tags: russia ukraine )
• Desert Island Discs, William Hartnell
  
  Recorded in 1965.
  (tags: doctorwho )