Current
Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (a chapter a month)
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth
Short Trips: Snapshots, ed. Joseph Lidster

Last books finished
Based On The Popular TV Serial, by Paul Smith
Occupy Me, by Tricia Sullivan
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet

Next books
The Habit of Loving, by Doris Lessing
The Parrot's Theorem, by Denis Guedj
The Cabinet of Light, by Daniel O'Mahoney

I am participating in today's BBC coverage of yesterday's Northern Ireland Assembly election (votes here are counted over the two days after the vote). It looks like the results will be much more interesting than I had anticipated - turnout is up in Nationalist and mixed areas, down in some of the more hardline Unionist areas. Initial indications will start coming through at lunchtime and they think that they may have finished as early as tomorrow lunchtime (which seems to mne optimistic, especially if there are close and contested results.

You can catch me on BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Parliament from 1.30pm to 6pm:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gmcd7

And again on the same channels from 7pm to 10pm:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gmcd9

And again from 1025pm to 1155pm on BBC One Northern Ireland, from 1035 on BBC Parliament and from 1040 on the BBC News channel:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gmcdc

And finally from 10am to 1pm tomorrow, on BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC Parliament
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08htmfv

If you are watching, I'll give you a special wave!

Current
Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (a chapter a month)
Based On The Popular TV Serial, by Paul Smith
Occupy Me, by Tricia Sullivan
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

Last books finished
To Lie with Lions, by Dorothy Dunnett
Azanian Bridges, by Nick Wood
Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript, by Justin Richards
The Fell Walker's Guide To Eternity by Andy Carling
My Daily Life Comics by Renée Rienties

Next books
The Habit of Loving, by Doris Lessing
The Parrot's Theorem, by Denis Guedj
Short Trips: Snapshots, ed. Joseph Lidster

Books acquired in last week
Sultana's Dream, by Rokheya Shekawat Hossein
Everfair, by Nisi Shawl
Borderline, Mishell Baker
Assessing European Neighbourhood Policy: Perspectives from the Literature, by Hrant Kostanyan
The Fell Walker's Guide To Eternity by Andy Carling
My Daily Life Comics by Renée Rienties
Doctor Who: The Secret Lives of Monsters by Justin Richards
Lars by Kristof Spaey
Onthuld by Kristof Spaey

It's that time of year. Once again, I've run the Nebula Best Novel finalists (and the Norton finalists) through LibraryThing and Goodreads to see how widely they are owned by those on each system.

Nebulas first.

	Goodreads		LibraryThing
	owners	av rating	owners	av rating
All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders	60284	3.59	612	3.64
The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin	19913	4.39	256	4.18
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee	10454	3.99	167	4
Everfair, by Nisi Shawl	6014	3.32	94	3.65
Borderline, Mishell Baker	5221	3.93	104	3.85

Impressive user rankings for The Obelisk Gate there, though All the Birds in the Sky is owned on both systems by roughly as many people as the other four combined.

And the Norton:

	Goodreads		LibraryThing
	owners	av rating	owners	av rating
The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge	36296	3.89	398	4.06
The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi	59105	3.58	230	3.49
The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill	23164	4.25	231	4.23
Railhead, Philip Reeve	6734	4.07	59	4.07
Arabella of Mars, David D. Levine	4212	3.67	62	3.83
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, Lindsay Ribar	4443	3.54	42	3.4
The Evil Wizard Smallbone, Delia Sherman	1574	4.1	35	4.3

Here the standout in terms of rankings is The Girl Who Drank The Moon, though bringing up the rear, the comparatively few who have read The Evil Wizard Smallbone really liked it.

We finish this tour of the Northern Ireland constituencies with South Belfast, where I grew up. It elected two Unionists in 2016 with 36.1% of first preferences, two Nationalists with 34.2%, one Alliance with 16.4% and one Green with 9.6%.

2016 result DUP 8,081 (22.0%, -2.3%) 2 seats (+1) UUP 2,466 (6.7%, /6.9%) 0 seats (-1) UKIP 794 (2.2%, +1.5%) TUV 495 (1.3%) Ind 475 (1.3%) PUP 430 (1.2%) SBU 351 (1.0%) Conservative 161 (0.4%) Alliance 6,023 (16.4%, -3.4%) 1 seat Green 3,521 (9.6%, +6.8%) 1 seat (+1) CCLA 871 (2.4%) NILRC 246 (0.7%) WP 241 (0.7%, +0.3%) SDLP 7,361 (20.0%, -3.9%) 1 seat (-1) Sinn Féin 5,207 (14.2%, +1.7%) 1 seat

2017 candidates @Emma Little Pengelly (DUP) @Christopher Stalford (DUP) Michael Henderson (UUP) John Hiddleston (TUV) George Jabbour (Cons) @Paula Bradshaw (Alliance) Emmet McDonough-Brown (Alliance) @Clare Bailey (Green) Sean Burns (CCLA) Lily Kerr (WP) Pádraigín Mervin (PBPA) Naomh Gallagher (SDLP) @Claire Hanna (SDLP) @Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (SF)

All six incumbents are standing for re-election; both the incumbent MLAs and the fourteen candidates are equally divided by gender. The DUP are defending their two seats with 1.3 quotas. The SDLP is defending its seat with 1.2 quotas, Alliance on just under a quota, SF on 0.9 of a quota,and the Greens on 0.6 of a quota. In 2016 there were 2.16 quotas of Unionist votes and 2.05 quotas of Nationalist votes.

Although there are more than two Unionist quotas, I have a gut feeling that the DUP may be the ones in trouble here, as the only party defending a second seat in the constituency; it is generally easier to defend one seat from 0.6 of a quota, as the Greens must do, than to defend two with 1.3 quotas, and Unionist voters here have been fickle with their transfers. This is one seat where I can see some potential traction for Mike Nesbitt's suggestion that UUP voters transfer to the SDLP.

Having said that, there will be a lot of transferring votes flying around, and it could be that if the SDLP or Alliance (or indeed the DUP) manage a precise split of their votes between two candidates, they could pull off an unexpected second seat. This is a very volatile and mobile constituency, and anything could happen.

We'll find out on 3 and 4 March.

East Belfast elected four Unionists in 2016 with 56.7% of first preferences, and Alliance got the remaining two starting with 28.7%. The Nationalist vote was 2.9%.

2016 result DUP 13,643 (36.7%, -7.3%) 3 seats UUP 4,142 (11.1%, +1.4%) 1 seat PUP 1,772 (4.8%, +0.2%) TUV 887 (2.4%, +0.2%) UKIP 631 (1.7%) Cons 477 (1.3%) Alliance 10,659 (28.7%, +2.4%) 2 seats Green 2,183 (5.9%, +4.1%) Ind 1,099 (3.0%) CCLA 517 (1.4%) NILRC 78 (0.2%) SF 946 (2.5%, -0.7%) SDLP 141 (0.4%, -0.4%)

2017 candidates @Joanne Bunting (DUP) David Douglas (DUP) @Robin Newton (DUP) @Andy Allen (UUP) Andrew Girvin (TUV) John Kyle (PUP) Sheila Bodel (Cons) @Naomi Long (Alliance) @Chris Lyttle (Alliance) Georgina Milne (Green) Courtney Robinson (CCLA) Jordy McKeag (Independent) Séamus de Faoite (SDLP) Mairéad O'Donnell (SF)

Five of the six incumbents are standing for re-election, with one DUP retirement. The DUP are defending three seats with 2.2 quotas; Alliance are defending two with 1.7 quotas; and the UUP one with 0.7 of a quota. In 2016 there were 3.4 Unionist quotas, and 0.5 of a quota of Nationalist votes. It therefore looks like the third DUP seat is the most vulnerable; the Alliance position will be strengthened by Nationalist and other transfers. Having said that, the Greens performed relatively well here in 2016 and may be a force to watch in the future.