diff --git a/src/calibre/spell/__init__.py b/src/calibre/spell/__init__.py
index 253dcbda4d..e6c2b4265f 100644
--- a/src/calibre/spell/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/spell/__init__.py
@@ -6,21 +6,14 @@ __copyright__ = '2014, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 
 from collections import namedtuple
 
-from calibre.utils.localization import canonicalize_lang
-from calibre.utils.resources import get_path as P
+from calibre.utils.localization import canonicalize_lang, load_iso3166
 
 DictionaryLocale = namedtuple('DictionaryLocale', 'langcode countrycode')
 
-ccodes, ccodemap, country_names = None, None, None
-
 
 def get_codes():
-    global ccodes, ccodemap, country_names
-    if ccodes is None:
-        from calibre.utils.serialize import msgpack_loads
-        data = msgpack_loads(P('localization/iso3166.calibre_msgpack', allow_user_override=False, data=True))
-        ccodes, ccodemap, country_names = data['codes'], data['three_map'], data['names']
-    return ccodes, ccodemap
+    data = load_iso3166()
+    return data['codes'], data['three_map']
 
 
 def parse_lang_code(raw):
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/localization.py b/src/calibre/utils/localization.py
index 4613f61af3..d2f6066d8a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/localization.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/localization.py
@@ -414,6 +414,14 @@ def _load_iso639():
     return _iso639
 
 
+def load_iso3166():
+    ans = getattr(load_iso3166, 'ans', None)
+    if ans is None:
+        from calibre.utils.serialize import msgpack_loads
+        ans = load_iso3166.ans = msgpack_loads(P('localization/iso3166.calibre_msgpack', allow_user_override=False, data=True))
+    return ans
+
+
 def get_iso_language(lang_trans, lang):
     iso639 = _load_iso639()
     ans = lang