It hasn't always been easy, but somehow (largely thanks to your support), I've managed to muddle through all of this for a total of seventeen years as of today. And because deep down inside, I'll always be a numbers guy, I can't resist sharing just a few of my favorite "numbers" with you today:
- 1,567 Book and Short Story Reviews (over 99% books)
- 212 Posts about bookstores
- 339 Posts about specific authors
- 34 Author obituaries
- 185 Posts about libraries
- 3,646 Total Posts (roughly one every other day for 17 years)
Too, I'm kind of fascinated that my all-time Top Five posts (based on page-views) are so all over the map. It's a little disturbing that book blog traffic is generally down from previous years, and that so many people now see blogging as passé, but a lot of us are in it for the long haul, and I'm happy to count myself in that group. The five posts in question are these:
- Warning: Area 509 Phone Calls Are Dangerous - 59,200 views
- Sarah's Key - 33,100 views
- The Virgin Suicides - 17,100 views
- 62 Ways to Read More Than 50 Books a Year - 10,500 views
- Barnes & Noble Uses Liquid Soap to Destroy Books - 9,080 views
Kind of all over the map, aren't they, with only two of them being actual books reviews?
Thanks to everyone (bloggers, readers, writers, publishers, librarians, and bookstore staff, alike) for making me feel a part of the book community for the last seventeen years. It's shocking to think just how much the world has changed since January 20, 2007. Never saw any of it coming...
Congrats on turning 17 and hope you continue for many more years. I don't see many male book bloggers so I assume they read and forget or else use instagram or twitter. Keep on trekking in 2024!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Harvee. I hope to be doing this for a long time to come, but as I learned a few years ago when forced to focus on a few critical issues that popped up all of a sudden, you just never know. Male book bloggers do seem to be a rarity; I seldom run across them anymore.
DeleteHi Sam, Congratulations on 17 years! I discovered Book Chase in 2021 I believe and I remember distinctly reading your review of Dark Passage by David Goodis. I had never read David Goodis but I remember being so impressed with your review. Not only your knowledge of noir fiction but how well you write, you conveyed that hardboiled world in your reviews so well. And that has been true ever since and I look forward to reading your reviews for years to come!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy. I really appreciate you and your blog, and that you stop by so regularly to share thoughts with me this way. Thank goodness for that Dark Passage review...you never know where those things are going when you push the submit button. I'm glad that one found its way to you.
DeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteThanks Mystica. I appreciate you.
DeleteCongrats on reaching 17 years? That is pretty amazing. I love reading your reviews, and chatting with you about books. You are always adding to my TBR list. I hope you stick around in the blogging world for many more years to come. :D
ReplyDelete(Sorry...that question mark should be an exclamation point!)
DeleteYeah, a "!" works better than a "?" in that context. lol
DeleteHey, the TBR thing is mutual. You've done a lot of damage to mine for a long time. Seems like I find something just about every time I stop by your place.
Congrats on 17 years, Sam! I love that you're an improtnat part of my blogging group of friends, whether blogging is now passé or not. I never was on trend anyway. LOL!! Your list of popular posts is quite intriguing. My top post is one I did years ago about books set in Cornwall. It got itself onto a major Cornish website at one stage and the visitors poured in. So funny. Good grief yes, the world is very different to what it was in 2007 (I started my blog then too) and neither did I see much of it coming. Here's to the next 17 years!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing, Cath, which post manages to catch the eye of someone who amplifies its exposure. You just never know. That Sarah's Key interview I did was linked to by The Guardian newspaper in their year-end recap of best fiction whatever year that was, and I started getting clicks on the review from all over the UK and the rest of the world all of a sudden. I finally tracked down the link and was kind of astonished to see it in their digital edition.
DeleteLooking at the list of blogs I try to check out every few days, I see that an disproportionate number of them started between 2006 and 2008. Book blogging must have been really hot about that time...the next big thing on the internet, etc. I had just gotten back into the country about then, and was looking for something to help kill all of the downtime I suddenly seemed to have in abundance. I stumbled upon a couple of book blogs, and couldn't resist the temptation to join them. Never expected, though, to be still doing it all these years later. Keep on blogging, Cath...never stop.
I am thankful you are in it for the long haul, too. Congrats on reaching 17 years. Thank you for sharing all of your book reviews with us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Trav. You have convinced me that next time I pass through Alabama I really need to slow down and check out some of the indie bookstores in the state. Maybe this summer.
ReplyDeleteI don't pay attention to, or trust stats any more. haha. I want to say how much I enjoy your blog. I don't always comment because of, well, I don't know - life I guess, but I rarely miss reading a post. My blog was never set up as a book blog, more just talking about the things I was interested in that day. I began in November 2006.
ReplyDeleteI agree about statistics, Nan. But it's all relative in the case of ranking things, I think, and that makes them useful sometimes. I do always wonder how many people actually read the things they get credit for having clicked on. Your blog fits right in with that "golden age" of blogs that seems to have blossomed about the time you started. It all seemed so new and radical to me back then.
Delete"new and radical" I love that, and it makes me chuckle. I remember being nervous about it because I had spent years in private book groups online, and blogging was open to everyone. I didn't know how I felt about being so exposed to people I didn't "know". And now there are many more internet things that are so very public!
DeleteAnd we went all the way from "new and radical" to "passé" in a heartbeat. lol
DeleteCongratulations, Sam, and here's to another 17 years! (My blog will only be Sweet 16 this year.)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cathy. You were right in that three-year window of blog start-ups that I mentioned. Seems like so many of us that are still going started up about then, but I do remember that someone hit the 20-year milestone sometime in 2023...now I can't recall which blog it was.
ReplyDelete17 years is amazing, and I am so glad you came back after taking a break. I enjoy keeping up with all that you are reading and getting so many ideas for authors and books. I am glad you plan to keep up with blogging too. For me, it is the best way to share my thoughts on books and communicate with others about books.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Tracy, it's pretty much the ONLY I have to share thoughts on books with anyone. I do have one 83-year old friend I see occasionally who is an avid reader and we sometimes talk for a couple of hours straight about what we're reading....and when I see my granddaughter we work in a little book talk (she's going to be stuck with my personal library at some point, I suspect). But blogging is still my main outlet. And comments are always much apprerciated.
DeleteWow congrats on 17! Happy blogiversary. Some very impressive stats. So glad you came back after your break. Isn't wild how time has flown with the blog? And it's such a good resource now after all these years. Hope you keep on with it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good resource to me because I can't remember writing half of what's here anymore. Sometimes I learn new things from my own posts. lol
DeleteBelatedly wishing you a happy blogiversary. Well, I am sure you had (a happy one). Glad you're continuing to read and write!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeane. It's hard to explain why, but I'm enjoying it more than ever. Probably because of my extended time away from blogging and how great the comments are these days. I really enjoy the conversation.
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