Last year, my last Monday Musings of the year fell on Christmas Day, so I did what I called a little recap post. This year, my last Monday Musings occurs the day before my big two end-of-year posts – Reading Highlights and Blogging Highlights – so I’ve decided to do another little undemanding Recap Post.
Recap 1: Some All-time Tops
Back in May I celebrated fifteen years of blogging, but in that post I didn’t share much in the way of overall statistics. However, trends and stats interest me so I’m sharing a couple here. Do you ever look at long term stats and trends on your blogs? See anything interesting?
My top review post of all time is one I wrote back in 2010 on Edith Wharton’s short story “A journey”. It was a Top Ten post for a long time, and continues to garner enough hits each year to keep it in the top 30. Close on its heels is my top Australian review post of all time, the one on Red Dog, the movie and the book. Like Wharton’s story, it was a serial Top Ten post, but was a bit of an outlier because, for many years, my Top Ten was dominated by my posts on older short stories. The last few years, though, have seen a gradual switch to more recent posts on more recent works occupying the top. I wonder why?
My strangest Top, though, comes from the list of sites that “refer” (sends visitors) to my blog. Next in the list after obvious sites – WordPress Reader, WordPress Android App, Facebook and Twitter – comes mumsnet.com! It’s the “UK’s biggest network for parents” and for some reason my posts, such as one on Germaine Greer, seem to get discussed there, resulting in visitors to my site. Is it just me?
Recap 2: Australian Women Writers Challenge
I’ve been involved in the Australian Women Writers blog since 2012. In January 2022, it changed from being an all-encompassing challenge to a blog/website devoted to promoting older, often under-recognised or overlooked, women writers, from the 19th- and 20th-centuries. This year, Elizabeth Lhuede and I tried a new “twist” for our posts, and featured a work by authors who had published something in 1924. Some of the writers were so fascinating that I also wrote them up for my Forgotten Writers series.
We made another change in 2024, which was to reduce our posting from twice a week to once a week. For Elizabeth and me, this post comprised an introduction to our chosen writer followed by a piece published by that person, while Bill continued with his survey of the Independent Woman in Australian Literature (with posts by himself and some guest contributors). Bill has written a useful wrap-up of his AWWC posts over the year on his blog.
Despite these changes, including fewer posts, our stats continued to increase, after dropping in 2022. As last year, my post on Barbara Baynton’s short story “A dreamer” was the blog’s most visited post during the year.
The blog does take a lot of time, and we are currently talking about future plans. Bill has decided to hang up his commissioning editor’s hat after three hardworking years. We are hugely grateful for all he did, including finding guest contributors. Those contributors produced some of our most popular posts of the year. Michelle Scott Tucker’s post on the Billabong series, for example, was our third most-visited post for 2024.
Recap 3: Books given this year
As I wrote last year, this is not, technically, a recap, but I have often in the past shared the titles of Australian books I’ve given as Christmas gifts. This year I’m including Australian books I have given during the year – for birthdays, giveaways, and Christmas. They are not necessarily my favourite reads – indeed, I haven’t read them all – but were chosen to suit the recipients’ likes. Those I have read I did enjoy, otherwise I wouldn’t have given them to someone else, and some of those I haven’t read are on my TBR.
- Carmel Bird, Love letter to Lola (my review, short stories; also in my gift list last year)
- Carmel Bird and Jace Rogers, Arabella (my review, children’s picture book)
- P.S. Cottier and N.G. Hartland, The thirty-one legs of Vladimir Putin (my review, novella)
- Ceridwen Dovey, Once were astronauts (to Melanie of Grab the Lapels – her review, short stories)
- Ali Cobby Eckermann, Ruby Moonlight (my review, verse novel)
- Anita Heiss, Barbed wire and cherry blossoms (novel)
- Tania McCartney, Wildlife compendium of the world (children’s nonfiction book)
- Andrew McDonald and Ben Woods, Hello Twigs: Time to paint (early graphic-novel reader)
- Emily Maguire, Rapture (my CWF Conversations 1 and 2, novel)
- Inga Simpson, The thinning (novel)
- Nardi Simpson, Bellburd (novel)
- Stephen Orr, Shining like the sun (my review, novel)
- Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone on the train has murdered someone (novel)
- Karen Viggers, Sidelines (my review, novel)
- Sonya Voumard, Tremor (my review, memory/nonfiction)
This year I seem to have given more non-Australian writers as gifts than usual, including Mick Herron, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Claire Keegan, Thomas King and Natasha Donovan, Seichō Matsumoto, Haruki Murakami, Sigrid Nunez, and the New Zealand children’s writer Pamela Allen. This might not support Australian writers, but it does support our bookshops, and literary culture which is what it’s all about – ultimately, isn’t it.
Care to share your Christmas book-giving?
Whispering Gums 
When I was studying speech pathology at Central Michigan University ine of our professors had us go to the library each week, look at the professional journals and discuss two abstracts we had read. Many articles had underlining under the important bits from previous students. It became quite the joke, however we did learn a lot. If it had been literature we were studying we could have used your posts and done the same. There is so much information and knowledge in your posts and I wonder if some of them don’t turn up in other forms for their instructors. I learn so much about Australian lit from reading what you Y are so interesting and not one word of soft palates or what age developmentally the palate closes in the womb (btw it is 56 days- haha)
I look forward to more knowledge in 2025❤️🌻❤️
Haha … Pam … and now I’ve learnt something!! BTW I like the sound of that lecturer’s approach.
I just can’t forget it. We had such a laugh that years of students reading and underlining the same passages.
They were obviously the important points.
Wait, you went to CMU? Like “fire up Chips!,” that CMU? In Mt. Pleasant??
Sure did. Right through to Masters degree. The great Chippewas!!
Wow, I’m from Mt. Pleasant, born and raised! I did a bachelor’s and master’s degree before moving to Indiana to attend Notre Dame.
I grew up in Grand Ledge Michigan, 70 miles south of CMU.
OH! I assumed you were Australian! Okay, that makes sense.
You learn something new every day, eh, Melanie.
No I’m a retired speech pathologist. Australia has a shortage. We came out for a three year contract in 1988 in exchange for moving expenses and never went back. We have citizenship here now with no plans to return to America.
Wow, the country must have made quite an impression. I’m so glad you found your happy place!
It’s a great country Melanie … haha! Seriously though, I would find it hard to move to another country permanently. I’m impressed by people who do.
Yes. We don’t have Donald Trump or a mass of guns. 🤔
Be glad it’s a mommy site and not pornography. I get lots of hits because people search for lesbians, nudes, etc, and years ago I reviewed for books from the satire Lesbian Career Girls series.
Haha, Melanie … now you put it that way! Interesting isn’t it how innocent posts can attract searches that may not be so innocent in intent.
It’s funny how the classic stories tend to garner steady attention. Wharton, though? That seems such a random choice! For me, it’s the Canadian-authored short stories. I’ve thought about assembling a post about all the requests for help with homework, sometimes the requests are so blunt they make me laugh aloud, but the ones who seem to want to make casual conversation and then segue into homework help are even funnier, as if I wouldn’t notice…but then I just write about other books instead.
Oh I love the homework requests Marcie … it’s clear that some of my searches are homework related but they don’t usually comment. I love that some of yours are brazen enough to push on!
Here’s one of the blunt ones, but from an Atwood post about one of the speculative novels: “I want a separate summary of chapter 15, 16,41,42,65 and 66. Can you please post it.” Can you imagine? heheh
Oh wow, that’s blatant Marcie … at least there was a please …
I gave book tokens and/or tokens for our local indie bookshop (they accept book tokens too but get all the money from someone buying one of their own ones). I received seven books, plus three for a not-so-secret santa. My most popular post over the past year is my review of Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” with 3,500 views, but my review of Chetan Bhagat’s “Two States” from Jan 2020 is still going strong in 6th place with 1,043 views in the last year – that’s quite an obscure one but I think it’s on curricula in India!
Book gift vouchers (which is what we call them is a good idea Liz. I’ve received many over the years but not given so many.
Re Two states, one of the reasons I’m sure The Philippines always ranks highly in my list of countries is because I suspect a book, which has now slipped to the Top 20, is on curricula there.
Your Zevin is a bit like my Demon Copperhead I guess… a current popular book.