For this analysis, The Chronicle looked at books that list San Francisco as a framework – that is, information from users of the platform. We excluded books with less than 1,000 Goodreads ratings – an indicator of readership since Goodreads users typically rate the books they have read, although some people rate the highly anticipated unpublished books.

The most popular book is the 2010 fantasy adventure novel “The lost heroBy Rick Riordan, the first in the five-volume “Heroes of Olympus” series. He has over 700,000 marks, with an average of 4.3. The book, however, isn’t set entirely in San Francisco – the city is just one of seven places listed as a setting on Goodreads.

The classic from 1908, “Martin eden”, By Jack London is the top rated book on our list. Based on over 30,000 ratings, it has an average of 4.5, which by Goodreads criteria is between “really liked it” and “it was amazing”.

But it’s not just the classics that are getting all the attention. The Most Popular Books, that is, the best rated books by Goodreads, are a mix of old and recently published books. Classics include “I know why the caged bird is singing, “Amy Tam’s Historical Fiction Novel”The Joy of Luck club“And two of Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novels,”The man of the high castle” and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“Among the most recent books is the James Patterson mystery thriller”1st to die“, As well as three romance novels”Ugly love, “The language of flowers” and “Wallbanger. “

These three romance novels are examples of San Francisco-based books that are both popular and beloved. All three have at least 190,000 scores, with an average score of 4.0 or higher.

Like “The Lost Hero,” all of these books aren’t set just in San Francisco – or the Bay Area for that matter. But for something almost entirely in San Francisco, there is “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstoreBy local author Robin Sloan – # 10 on our list. The book centers on a fictional bookstore on Broadway Street, which Sloan says pays homage to the independent City Lights Booksellers in North Beach.

While most of the action takes place inside the bookstore, Sloan takes readers to other Bay Area locations, including the Google campus and the streets of Telegraph Hill. And physical location aside, Sloan’s characters and cultural references are quintessential “San Franciscan” – the protagonist is a web developer who uses data visualization to solve the mystery of the novel.

Sloan has lived in the Bay Area for years, which he says is the reason his two novels and two short stories are based there. “I want to put these stories in the world that I walk in, so it was always going to be San Francisco or the Bay Area,” he said.

“Sir. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” and Sloan’s second novel, “Levain,” contain either science fiction or fantasy elements that reflect how he views the city and its people. here who operate with a level of intensity and ambition far above average, and often what these people do is poke their noses 15 minutes into the future, find out where we are all going to be in a little while time, ”he said.

For Alice Clayton, author of the love novel “Wallbanger”, San Francisco is a romantic and enchanting place. Clayton, who chooses to write under a pseudonym and lives in St. Louis, grew up in the Midwest and discovered San Francisco as a child while reading Beverly Cleary’s books. As an adult, she often traveled to the Bay Area for work and quickly fell in love with the city. When it came time to write “Wallbanger,” placing it in what she saw as a romantic city seemed like the perfect match.

“I absolutely loved being in the city and seeing it through the eyes of the Midwest,” Clayton said. “Everyone looked glamorous. Everything was heels, chic, chic and tight, but with a relaxed Californian touch.

Our analysis found 371 commonly read books that take place in San Francisco, making the city well-ranked compared to most other major US cities. We found about 450 popular books in Los Angeles, 411 in Chicago, 326 in Washington, DC, and 290 in Seattle.

But none can compare to literary significance of New York City. We found over 1,300 popular books set there, including classics like “Gatsby the magnificent” and “The catcher in the rye”, As well as recent bestsellers“The glass castle” and “A little life. “

Most of the San Francisco-based books were published during this century. About 20% of the books analyzed were published before 2000, such as the mystery thriller “The Maltese Falcon“And classic tragic novel”McTeague. “The oldest book is a The mystery of Sherlock Holmes published in 1891.

Since the data used in this analysis comes from Goodreads users, our list is not exhaustive. There is a separate listing for Books based on the Bay Area, as well as others lists compiled by users which specifies kind and public.

When asked about his favorite San Francisco-based books, Sloan listed three that he described as being outside the box: “Abortion, “Our Lady of Darkness” and “The ministry of the future. “

For Sloan, what makes a good place-based fiction book is the ability to change the way a reader experiences a place. This happened to Sloan after reading a passage from “Our Lady of Darkness” by Fritz Leiber which takes place in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco. Now every time he goes to the park he can’t help but think about the scene from the book.

“The cool thing about writing in real places is that you almost get to haunt (readers’) experiences of the world,” Sloan said.

Nami Sumida is a San Francisco Chronicle data visualization developer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @namisumida