For the last month or more, whenever I check my weblog statistics to see what countries my readers represent, I have gotten a list much like today’s: in order from 1 to 25, USA, unknown, EU, Iceland, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, China, Japan, France, Austria, Brazil, Greece, Russia, Ireland, Iran, and Singapore.
In general, the list is unsurprising: these are all countries with a large number (though not necessarily a large percentage) of English-fluent computer-owners. Culture may have something to do with it, too: it’s not surprising that Italy and Greece place relatively high in visits to a Classics site. France is a bit lower than I would have expected, Hungary and Slovakia quite a bit higher, but the huge anomaly is in fourth place. In fact, if we omit ‘unknown’ and generic ‘EU’, Iceland is the second country on the list after the US. What’s that all about? Are there that many classicists in Iceland, or just a few obsessives (or even one?) checking in every half-hour to see what’s new? I’m not unhappy, or unwelcoming, just puzzled.
