Here is the last of my traditional year-end trifecta (the others being my Australian Women Writers’ Challenge wrap-up and Reading highlights posts). This is very self-indulgent, I know, but it interests me!

Top posts for 2019

There hasn’t been a huge change in my top posts – several posts have remained in the list for several years now, and seven of the ten were published over 5 years ago. However, this year has seen a bit of shift, as you’ll see in my comments below.

Here’s my 2019 Top Ten, by number of hits:

• Trent Dalton’s Boy swallows universe (posted January 2019)
• What do you say when you order food at a restaurant (posted November 2014)
• Edith Wharton, “A journey” (posted November 2010)
• Bruce Pascoe, Dark emu, black seeds: Agriculture or accident (posted October 2016)
• Mark Twain, “A presidential candidate” (posted August 2016)
• Barbara Baynton, “The chosen vessel” (posted November 2012)
• Red Dog (Movie and Book) (posted August 2011)
• Merlinda Bobis, Fish-hair woman (posted April 2012)
• Toni Jordan, Nine days (posted September 2012)
• Virginia Woolf, “The mark on the wall” (posted March 2012)

So, the shift. Mainly it’s that I have a new record with six Australian posts appearing in the Top Ten, four more than last year, and two more than the previous record of four. Barbara Baynton is an established regular, though which work/s change from year to year. Last year it was “Squeaker’s mate” while this year “The chosen vessel” returns to the Top Ten. Meanwhile, Red Dog, is here yet again, proving itself to be true blue! However, the BIG news is that for the first time an Australian book has actually topped the Top Ten, Trent Dalton’s Boy swallows universe. This is the same book that was my reading group’s top pick of the year.

Fascinatingly, Mark Twain’s “A presidential candidate”, which popped into the Top Ten last year, has remained there this year. As I said last year, does this have anything to do with you know who? Short stories and essays still feature strongly, but there are just four this year, versus seven last.

Four Australian posts appear in the next ten, and they are an eclectic lot. Two are for works, Barbara Baynton’s “Squeaker’s mate” and Vicki-Laveau-Harvie’s The erratics, and two are author-based posts, Vale Andrew McGahn (1966-2019) and Helen Garner on writers and writing.

I also like to note how well the posts actually written in the year ranked. Last year the first one came in at 23. This year, the winner, my Boy swallows universe post, romped in at number 1, with more than double the hits of the second ranked post. My next most popular 2019-written posts ranked 15th (Vale Andrew McGahan (1966-2019)) and 18th (Vicki Laveau-Harvie, The erratics). So, three from 2019 in the top 20. Unheard of!

For the Monday Musings fans amongst you, my most popular Monday Musings posts were:

• Some new releases in 2019 (posted January 2019);
• Australian Gothic (19th century) (posted December 2012); and,
• equal third, Ruth Park (posted October 2010) and Novels set in Sydney (posted November 2015).

Australian Gothic and Novels set in Sydney were second and first, respectively last year, with 2018’s new release post being third! Not a big change in substance, then. This suggests that our blogs are long-term resources, as well as places for current discussion.

Random blogging stats

The searches

I should add the proviso here that many many search terms are not exposed to us bloggers, so the terms I’m sharing above are a small subset.

Other stats

I wrote four fewer posts in 2019 than in 2018, averaging just under 14 posts per month – and yet the traffic on my blog increased by more than 20% over last year. (Then again, last year’s traffic was somewhat lower than the previous year. It’s all a mystery to me!)

Australia, the USA, and Britain, in that order, were the top three countries visiting my blog, as in 2018. In 2017, India was fourth and Canada fifth, while in 2018, the order was reversed. This year, India regained its upper hand over Canada! The Philippines remains 6th for at least the third year, largely, I think, because of interest in Merlinda Bobis’ Fish-hair woman.

I’d like to thank all of you who commented on my blog this year. My comments count increased by around 7% in 2019, which is satisfying because the respectful conversations we have here are very special to me. I particularly want to thank Lisa (ANZLitLovers) and Bill (The Australian Legend) who tolerate, both on my blog and theirs, much contrariness from me. Their tolerance and forbearance (not to mention that of the rest of you who come back here again and again) is a true measure of how positive and respectful social media can be.

Challenges, memes and other things

I only do one challenge, the AWW Challenge, which I wrapped up this week. And I only do one regular Meme, #sixdegreesofseparation run by Kate (booksaremyfavouriteandbest), but I occasionally do others. You can see all the memes I’ve done on my “memes” category link.

I also took part in Lisa’s (ANZLitLovers) Indigenous Literature Week, Bill’s (The Australian Legend) AWW Gen 1 Week, and, more casually, in Nonfiction November run by a group of bloggers, because these all relate closely to my reading interests.

Each year I like to host some guest posts with this year’s coming from Amanda who mostly reviewed titles that were missing from the AWW challenge database, and my brother Ian, who wrote two posts on his attendance at the Hobart Writers’ Festival. To read them, click this link and look at those posted in 2019. A big thanks to Amanda and Ian for their contributions.

A major highlight of the year, though, was my continued involvement as blogging mentor for the New Territory  program sponsored by the ACT Writers Centre, the National Library of Australia, the Canberra Writers Festival and the Street Theatre. The program’s aim is primarily “to stoke cultural conversations in the ACT”. I enjoyed working with Shelley Burr and Rosalind Moran over the second half of the year.

And so, 2020 …

To conclude, a big thanks again to everyone who read, commented on and/or “liked” my blog last year – and to all the other wonderful bloggers out there, even though I don’t always manage to visit everyone as much as I’d like. I wish you all good reading in 2020, and look forward to discussing books with you here or there!

Finally, as I say every year, a very big thanks to the authors who write the books, and to the publishers and booksellers who get the books out there. I hope 2020 will be positive for us all.