This list is for the most well known Historical Fiction books on Goodreads.

For purposes of this list, only include books with over 100,000 ratings and shelved at least 1000 times as historical fiction.

Anything with less than 100,000 ratings or shelved less than 1000 times as historical fiction will be removed and without comment.

A book that was set in the time it was written like say Pride and Prejudice is not historical fiction. Please avoid putting these on the list and call them out in comments to discourage people. But librarians shouldn't remove such books from these lists as long as its been tagged incorrectly at least 1000 times.

See also:
Best Historical Fiction
Best Historical Fiction of the 21st Century
Best Historical Mystery
Recommended Historical Fiction
Teen Historical Fiction

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1

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4.31 avg rating — 1,992,332 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,158,905 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,034,365 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 3,513,061 ratings
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4.65 avg rating — 2,157,793 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 783,315 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 6,926,944 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 213,939 ratings
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4.46 avg rating — 1,749,001 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,116,249 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,259,333 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,133,742 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 157,725 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 234,538 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,658,353 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 227,722 ratings
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17

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4.14 avg rating — 397,389 ratings
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18

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4.11 avg rating — 1,705,886 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,896,787 ratings
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20

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4.35 avg rating — 835,357 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,855,353 ratings
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22

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4.30 avg rating — 323,139 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 277,474 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 814,558 ratings
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25

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4.10 avg rating — 283,714 ratings
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26

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4.39 avg rating — 331,999 ratings
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27

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3.79 avg rating — 242,449 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 725,544 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 514,611 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 796,550 ratings
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31

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4.33 avg rating — 348,966 ratings
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32

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4.16 avg rating — 2,338,659 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 256,371 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 278,746 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 999,500 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 386,790 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 363,845 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 153,305 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 192,409 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 213,289 ratings
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41

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4.35 avg rating — 258,090 ratings
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42

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4.11 avg rating — 522,492 ratings
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42

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4.02 avg rating — 176,978 ratings
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44

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4.36 avg rating — 270,092 ratings
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45

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4.10 avg rating — 1,490,394 ratings
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46

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4.44 avg rating — 166,389 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,361,477 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 316,109 ratings
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49

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4.34 avg rating — 184,927 ratings
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50

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3.88 avg rating — 1,016,398 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 167,388 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 889,702 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 348,087 ratings
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54

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3.75 avg rating — 414,911 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 673,998 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 176,144 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 225,725 ratings
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57

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3.97 avg rating — 710,999 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 275,349 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 365,716 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 665,110 ratings
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61

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4.07 avg rating — 142,108 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 1,303,284 ratings
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64

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4.16 avg rating — 239,596 ratings
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65

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4.30 avg rating — 276,744 ratings
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66

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4.39 avg rating — 178,580 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 481,643 ratings
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68

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4.04 avg rating — 157,219 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 160,645 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 613,894 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 429,044 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 559,025 ratings
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73

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4.08 avg rating — 273,140 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 232,657 ratings
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3.82 avg rating — 179,292 ratings
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76

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4.31 avg rating — 878,706 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 183,142 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 586,822 ratings
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79

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3.86 avg rating — 194,859 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 635,013 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 407,408 ratings
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82

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3.80 avg rating — 277,302 ratings
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83

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4.55 avg rating — 478,615 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,120,248 ratings
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85

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4.18 avg rating — 496,354 ratings
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86

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4.58 avg rating — 246,743 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 877,885 ratings
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88

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 128,780 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 165,087 ratings
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90

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4.06 avg rating — 447,741 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 181,908 ratings
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92

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4.29 avg rating — 512,743 ratings
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93

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3.83 avg rating — 1,340,512 ratings
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94

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4.05 avg rating — 475,241 ratings
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95

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3.94 avg rating — 549,385 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 1,023,605 ratings
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97

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4.09 avg rating — 388,526 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 213,462 ratings
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99

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4.35 avg rating — 662,999 ratings
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100

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3.93 avg rating — 123,838 ratings
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176 books · 29 voters · list created December 21st, 2020 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11603 books
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Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

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message 1: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 22, 2020 01:01AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set).


message 2: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set)."

The fun thing about an arbitrary rule - like must be tagged a particular way - is it doesn't have to be right.

I thought about this exact instance when creating this list and I'll put something in the list description.


Charlotte Igelkott Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set)."

The f..."


Other weird effects of the number of shelvings rule:
The Name of the Rose qualifies for the classics list, but not for the historical fiction list. (Still not sure I can trust my eyes on that one but I've checked and double checked and...nope)
The House of the Spirits qualifies for the historical fiction list, but not for the classics list.
Surely I can't be the only one who thinks the reverse would make more sense? (Not trying to suggest any changes, just genuinely astonished)


message 4: by Emrys (last edited Jan 18, 2021 10:24AM) (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it ..."

I suspect with the The Name of the Rose probably did previously qualify for this list but somehow the genre shelf totals have been been reinterpreted/misinterpreted by Goodreads - e.g. the 4000 or so shelvings it has for “Fiction” is similar to the number of shelvings Fall of Giants has for “historical fiction” (the two books both have about 300,000 ratings).


Charlotte Igelkott Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it ..."

Oh. Sounds a bit odd to me, but then I'm not very tech savvy. Is this the sort of thing that would be likely to flip back and forth at random or will it be stable until someone notices and changes it back? (Assuming the current numbers are wrong, of course) How can one tell if tNotR is the only book this has happened to or if it's a widespread phenomenon? Would it be likely to have affected other shelves as well? And from a librarian point of view, should I stop deleting books for insufficient shelvings for now?
(Sorry if I'm being too inquisitive - would be better to contact support, perhaps?)


message 6: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for in..."

I have a spreadsheet of books that records 4000+ shelvings for the genre “Historical Fiction” - I used this tool to get the genre data: https://github.com/PaulKlinger/Enhanc... , but I can’t be sure if the discrepancy is because of an error made by the tool, or because of Goodreads changing things.

Yes, I’ll try asking Support about it later. I don’t get the impression that it’s a widespread problem (just this book actually).


Charlotte Igelkott Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... ([book:Pride..."

That sounds reassuring. Thank you for answering :)


message 8: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction....."

I raised this issue with Support and they said they’d get the developers to look into it.

If it’s not sorted in a week or two I guess the book can be removed from the list.


message 9: by Emrys (new)

Emrys The Name of the Rose now has 4300 shelvings as "Historical Fiction" so it seems the issue has been fixed.


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