Yesterday, as per my tradition, I posted my annual Reading highlights, which means tonight it’s time for my Blogging highlights. This is probably only of interest to me, but I’m a librarian/archivist by training and I love to keep records! My main blogging highlight this year has to be that I celebrated 15 years of blogging in May. I never thought I’d still be here, but then again, I hadn’t realised how much fun it would be to be part of an international community of litbloggers, nor did I guess the way we’d become part of literary culture, locally, nationally and internationally.

Anyhow, onto some specific highlights …

Top posts for 2024

Are you interested in which posts of yours get the most hits? I love seeing which of my review posts are most visited over the year. For many years, older posts have dominated my Top Ten, but recent years have seen a gradual shift to more newer posts taking top honours. This continued for 2024. Why this change?

1. Claire Keegan, So late in the day (December 2023)
2. Ernest Hemingway, “Cat in the rain” (September 2022)
3. Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead (February 2024)
4. Richard Flanagan, Question 7 (March 2024, Australian)
5. J.D. Vance, Hillbilly elegy (August 2023)
6. Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler, Black cockatoo (January 2021, Australian)
7. Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard devotional (June 2024, Australian)
8. Robbie Arnott, Limberlost (March 2023, Australian)
9. Ambelin Kwaymullina, “Fifteen days on Mars” (January 2023, Australian)
10. Epiphany in Harrower’s “The fun of the fair” (essay by Emily Maguire) (January 2022, Australian)

Observations:

• Three of these posts (Hemingway, Kwaymullina and Maguire’s essay on Harrower) were Top Tens last year, but in a big break with the past, none of the Serial Top Tenners (Jack London, Barbara Baynton, and Mark Twain) appear this year. Jack London does rank 12th, while Baynton and Twain have both dropped to the 20s.
• Seven posts were published in the last two years, which is another record, being an increase by two on last year’s record of 5. Even more of a record is that all top ten posts were published in the 2020s. This trend to recent posts ranking well is a big change after years of older posts holding sway. I’m not sure how much is due to a real change in behaviour and how much to some change in WordPress’s protocols for counting hits.
• Seven of this year’s Top Tens are Top Ten debuts, and six of this year’s Top are for Australian works, both of which are also records.
• The list always offers something intriguing (to me, anyhow), but I’ll just comment on two inclusions: J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly elegy jumped in hits the week he was named you-know-who’s Vice-Presidential running mate; and I have no idea why Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler’s gorgeous children’s picture book, Black cockatoo, is in the Top Ten, but I love that it is.

I also like to see how the posts written in the year fare, so here are the Top Ten 2024-published posts (excluding Monday Musings, event and meme posts):

• Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead (February 2024, American)
• Richard Flanagan, Question 7 (March 2024, Australian)
• Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard devotional (June 2024, Australian)
• Duane Niatum, “Crow’s sun” (February 2024, American)
• Anna Funder, Wifedom (May 2024, Australian)
• Sigrid Nunez, The vulnerables (March 2024, American)
• Karen Viggers, Sidelines (March 2024, Australian)
• Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie (August 2024, Australian)
• Thomas King, “Borders” (April 2024, Canadian)
• Lucy Mushita, Chinongwa (February 2024, Zimbabwean)

My two most popular Monday Musings posts were the same as last year: Some new releases (the 2024 version); Books banned in Australia (June 2019); but my old post on The lost child motif (February 2011) was roundly bumped out of its stranglehold on the number three position by this year’s First Nations short story collections post (July 2024). What a lovely surprise.

Random blogging stats

The searches

I know some of you enjoy this part of my Blogging Highlights post, even though these days search term visibility is greatly curtailed.

Some searches related to specific books…

• “need a detailed summary of stone yard devotional book by charlotte wood for a book club”: don’t you love the “need”?
• “what is the trait of esperance in novel terra nullius”
• “the rosie project cultural context”

while some are more general …

• “australian modernist literature books”: this would have found a Monday Musings I wrote.

and some are just surprising …

• last year I noted that the searches – ‘date of birth and “scott tucker”‘ and ‘husband and “scott tucker”’ – were probably looking for this Scott Tucker but that they got Michelle Scott Tucker’s Elizabeth Macarthur’s biography instead. People are still looking for “that” Scott Tucker, but are finding “mine”.
• “trust-your-instincts-and-have-a-premarital-agreement-drafted” : what on earth brought this search to me?
• “helen garner detives inspiration from female british author” : despite the typo this search found me, though I haven’t worked out why.
• “books on literary authenticity in australia” : this seems to have brought the searcher to my home page rather than to a particular post which I guess should please me!
• “historical importance of the esay literature and totalitarianism” : this brought the searcher to my post on George Orwell’s essay on “The prevention of literature”

Other stats

2024 was another quiet year for me post-wise. Although I wrote four more posts than last year’s 135, it was still well under my long term average of 153. However, my overall hits for the year increased by 35% on last year. Stats! I find it hard to believe that’s a true increase, particularly given the number of “likes” and “comments” were about the same. Methinks they’ve changed their counting protocols.

The top six countries visiting my blog were the same as last year, in the same order: Australia (46%), the USA (22%), United Kingdom, India, Canada, and the Philippines. But the next four show a change with Ireland popping in at no. 7, having not been in the ten at all, followed by New Zealand, Germany and France, from last year’s top ten. China dropped out.

I’ve never reported on this one before, but another interesting figure provided by WordPress (JetPack) is Clicks. This tells which sites visitors clicked, suggesting something about visitors’ engagement with our posts. My tops include Wikipedia, my own blog and images within it, and two short story sites. But, you might be interested in the bloggers that I link to. Here are the top 5 blogs clicked from mine, plus their most clicked link:

• ANZLitLovers: Audrey Magee’s The colony
• Bronas Books: Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead
• The Australian Legend: Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (2/2)
• Reading Matters: Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost
• 746 Books: Novellas in November, The ones that got away 2023

Challenges, memes, et al

I only do one regular meme, Kate’s (booksaremyfavouriteandbest) #sixdegreesofseparation. I occasionally do other memes – found under my “memes” link – but did no others in 2024.

I also took part, to various degrees, in Bill’s (The Australian Legend) Gen 0, Nonfiction November (multiple bloggers), Novellas in November (Cathy of 746 books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck), the #YEAR Club (Kaggsy’s Bookish Rambling and Simon’s Stuck in a Book), and Buried in Print’s MARM. Most of these can be found via my “Reading weeks/months/years” category.

I like the structured opportunity these provide for bloggers to explore writers and works we might otherwise find hard to fit in, and would love to do more, but …!

And so, 2025 …

I can’t do much but repeat my usual thanks you to all of you who commented on my blog this year – the regulars and the newbies who have given me a shot. I love those of you who comment – regularly or occasionally – and thank you for being an active part of the community. But, as always, a big thank you too to the lurkers. Your interest and support is also greatly appreciated.

I also want to thank all the hardworking bloggers out there. I’m sorry that I’ve continued this year to be a less regular commenter on your blogs than I’d like to. My life has changed, and I’m still working out how to manage the new lifestyle, with new and old commitments. I enjoy reading your posts when I can, and hope to read more, and engage in more book talk in 2025.

Finally, huge thanks to the authors, publishers and booksellers who make it all possible.

Roll on 2025 … Meanwhile, Happy New Year everyone.

As is my tradition, I have separated out my annual Reading highlights from my Blogging highlights, mainly because combining them would result in one very long post. I always do my Blogging Highlights on 1 January, which this year clashes with Monday Musings, unfortunately. All being well, I plan to do my usual first Monday Musings of the year tomorrow.

Top posts for 2023

Until recently the top of the ladder has been dominated by older posts, but in recent years there has been a gradual shift to more recent posts making it to the top. Last year, two posts published during the year made the Top Ten. This happened again this year. One (no. 6) is an obvious candidate, but the other (no. 2) is, as I wrote yesterday, a bit of a surprise.

Here is my 2023 Top Ten, in popularity order:

1. Jack London, “War” (March 2010)
2. Ambelin Kwaymullina, “Fifteen days on Mars” (from Unlimited futures)(January 2023) (Australian)
3. Epiphany in Harrower’s “The fun of the fair” (essay by Emily Maguire) (January 2022) (Australian)
4. Audrey Magee, The colony (September 2022)
5. Ernest Hemingway, “Cat in the rain” (September 2022)
6. Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in chemistry (June 2023)
7. Barbara Baynton, “A dreamer” (January 2013) (Australian)
8. Anthony Doerr, All the light we cannot see (September 2016)
9. George Orwell, “How the poor die” (October 2010)
10. Mark Twain, “A presidential candidate” (August 2016)

Observations:

• Four of these posts (London, Maguire’s essay on Harrower, Baynton and Twain) were Top Tens last year, with three being Serial Top Tenners (London, Baynton, and Twain). Do all – including the relative newbie, the essay on Harrower – relate to school/university assignments?
• Five posts were published in the last two years, which is a record. Some surprise me, but I suspect the popularity of my Garmus and Doerr posts is related to their screen adaptations released in 2023.
• Five of this year’s Top Tens are Top Ten debuts, including the Garmus and Doerr. The sudden appearance here of my rather old Orwell post might be due to a recent flurry of books about Orwell, including Anna Funder’s Wifedom, but then, why that one of all my Orwell posts? Maybe there’s another reason, maybe it’s been set as a text? I’m pleased to see Magee’s novel here, and guess it’s just because this novel has been popular, but what about my relatively new Ernest Hemingway post? Why that one?
• In 2021, six of the Top Ten posts were for full-length books, but as I wrote last year that was clearly an aberration, as in 2022 – and again this year – we returned to my more usual motley mix of mainly short stories/essays.

I also like to see how the posts written in the year fare, so here are the Top Ten 2023-published posts (excluding Monday Musings, event and meme posts):

• Ambelin Kwaymullina, “Fifteen days on Mars” (2nd, January, First Nations Australian)
• Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in chemistry (6th, June, American)
• Robbie Arnott, Limberlost (12th, February, Australian)
• Pauline Johnson, “A red girl’s reasoning” (19th, February, First Nations Canadian)
• ChatGPT and Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones (44th, February, Australian)
• Zitkala-Sa, “The soft-hearted Sioux” (45th, March, First Nations American)
• D’Arcy McNickle, “Train time” (49th, April, First Nations American)
• Leslie Marmon Silko, “The man to send rain clouds” (53rd, June, First Nations American)
• Eleanor Limprecht, The coast (83rd, March, Australian)
• JD Vance, Hillbilly elegy (91st, August, American)

My skewed reading year shows up strongly in these stats. I am intrigued that there was so much interest in my posts on stories by First Nations North Americans, particularly given Australians represent by far the most numerous visitors to my blog.

My most popular Monday Musings posts were essentially the same as last year: Books banned in Australia (June 2019); Some new releases (the 2023 version); The lost child motif (February 2011).

Random blogging stats

The searches

I love sharing some of the search terms used to reach my blog, Unfortunately, search term visibility is no longer what it used to be, but a few still get through for some reason. Certain browsers?

Some are probably assignment or book group related?

• “david foster wallace word notes”
• “key characteristics of australian literature in terra nullius by coleman”
• “the colony audrey magee book club questions” and “the colony audrey magee what does title mean”
• “characters in ripper by shelley burr”
• “but being completely alone was a feeling”: searching this on my blog retrieves posts like Delia Owen’s Where crawdads sing and Tegan Bennett Daylight’s Six bedrooms, with Delia Owens being what they were looking for, as I quote this line, without the opening “but”.

Some are just general research:

• “famous first sentences from Australian novels”

Then others seem to be looking for something very specific:

• ‘date of birth and “scott tucker”‘ and ‘husband and “scott tucker”’: these are probably looking for this Scott Tucker but they got Michelle Scott Tucker’s Elizabeth Macarthur’s biography instead.
• “germaine greer care home” AND “germaine greer aged care”: we are still interested in Germaine Greer. Over the year I have had many hits from a site called mumsnet.com which linked to my 2022 Canberra Writers Festival post on her.
• “very short stories convict fiction free”: this seems to find my Convict Literature tag, so tags do work!

Other stats

Overall, 2023 was another challenging year for me blog-wise and it shows in the stats. I only wrote 135 posts, which is the fewest number of posts per year that I’ve ever written and is well under my long term average of 153. However, my overall hits for the year increased by 17% on last year. Stats! Always a mystery.

The top ten countries visiting my blog vary slightly from last year: Australia (44%), the USA (27%), Britain, India, Canada, the Philippines, China, France, New Zealand, and Germany, in this order. The first four are the same, and then five of the next six are the same countries, in different order. However, Mexico dropped out to be replaced by New Zealand.

Challenges, memes, et al

I only do one regular meme, Kate’s (booksaremyfavouriteandbest) #sixdegreesofseparation, and in 2023 I did every month, except December. I occasionally do other memes – found under my “memes” category link – but you’ll find no others in 2023.

I also took part, to various degrees, in Bill’s (The Australian Legend) AWW Gen 5 – SFF, Nonfiction November (multiple bloggers), Novellas in November (Cathy of 746 books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck), the #YEAR Club (Kaggsy’s Bookish Rambling and Simon’s Stuck in a Book), Brona’s Aus Reading Month, Buried in Print’s MARM, and the William Trevor Reading Year (Cathy of 746 Books and Kim of Reading Matters). Most of these can be found via my “Reading weeks/months/years” category.

I do these because they align with my reading practice and goals. I’d love to do more, and I like the structured encouragement they provide for me to explore writers and works I would otherwise find hard to fit into my schedule.

And so, 2024 …

As always, thank you to all of you who commented on my blog this year – the regulars who hang in with me year in year out, and the newbies who have given me a shot. I hope you have enjoyed the community here enough to stay. I love those of you who comment. Thanks so much for being an active part of the community. But, a big thank you too to the lurkers. I really do appreciate your interest and support too.

I also want to thank all the hardworking bloggers out there. I’ve been a poor community member – again – this year, but I do appreciate you and enjoy reading your posts when I can. I look forward to more reading and great book talk in 2024.

Finally, huge thanks to the authors, publishers and booksellers who make it all possible – and who have proved yet again that the book is far from dead.

Roll on 2024 … a big year for my blog which will turn 15 in May. Meanwhile, Happy New Year everyone.

Finally, the last of my traditional and very self-indulgent year-end trifecta (which includes my Australian Women Writers’ Challenge wrap-up and Reading highlights posts).

But, before I launch into my usual analysis, I must send a huge shout-out to Bill (The Australian Legend) for the astonishing effort he put in this year to help me keep my blog going during the sad months of my mother’s late-diagnosed illness and death. He coordinated four Monday Musings guest posts (from Lisa, Kate and Michelle, as well as himself, even proposing topics in case they needed inspiration). And, inspired by Karen’s (BookerTalk) post on reblogging, he curated a series of reblogged posts from my early days, which we titled Bill curates. It was a stellar effort and I’m immensely grateful to him (and to Lisa, Michelle and Kate) for helping me out during those times. It may sound silly but it significantly helped my well-being to have these posts lined up to keep my beloved blog ticking along. Thanks Bill.

Top posts for 2020

Until last year, my top posts have changed minimally, but last year’s little shift has held – a little! However, there is still a set of “usual suspects” posts reappearing year after year, and it’s still true that most of the posts are over 5 years old. Whatever these top posts are, though, I always wonder why them? Some are probably set school texts, but the rest?

Here’s my 2020 Top Ten, ordered by number of hits:

• Trent Dalton’s Boy swallows universe (January 2019)
• Mark Twain, “A presidential candidate” (August 2016)
• Merlinda Bobis, Fish-hair woman (April 2012)
• Edith Wharton, “A journey” (November 2010)
• Barbara Baynton, “The chosen vessel” (November 2012)
• What do you say when you order food at a restaurant (November 2014)
• Jack London, “War” (March 2010)
• ABRs Top Twenty Aussie novels of the 21st Century (September 2019)
• Wallace Stegner, Crossing to safety (June 2014)
• Graham Greene, Travels with my aunt (March 2017)

None of these were actually published in 2020, which is the norm except for last year’s little aberration when Trent Dalton hit the top spot. What other observations can I make?

• Red Dog has slipped out of the Top Ten (into the Top Twenty) for the first time since it was published in 2011.
• Last year’s record of six Australian posts in the Top Ten did not last, but Australians still make a showing!
• Barbara Baynton continues to be an established Top Ten regular.
• Why is ABR’s Top Twenty list here? Were locked-down readers looking for reading recommendations? And, old Stegner and Greene posts are new here. Why them? Good lockdown reading?
• Mark Twain’s “A presidential candidate”, which popped into the Top Ten in 2018 and remained there in 2019, appears again, but has risen to 2nd spot! I wonder why?!
• Short stories and essays still feature strongly, with four again this year.

Four Australian posts appear in the next ten, as in 2019, but they are all different. Barbara Baynton remains, just with a different story, “A dreamer”! The others are Shaun Tan’s Eric, the slowly-slipping Red dog, and, out-of-the-blue it seems to me, a 2014 Delicious descriptions: Clare Wright’s sources on the Australian landscape.

But what about posts actually written in 2020? How did they fare? After last year’s little aberration, this year returned to normal (whatever that is) with my top-ranked 2020-written post coming quite down the list. Here are the Top Ten 2020-published posts (excluding Monday Musings) – an eclectic bunch that tells us, what?:

• Tara June Winch’s The yield (24th, April)
• Angela Thirkell’s Trooper to the Southern Cross (31st, January)
• Vale My Magnificent Mum (34th, June)
• Living under COVID-19 (35th, March)
• Favel Parrett’s There was still love (56th, June)
• Joan Didion’s “Quiet days in Malibu” (62nd, January)
• Heather Rose’s Bruny (63rd, April)
• Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence (67th, October)
• Writing War: A panel discussion about war and historical writing (69th, April)
• World Poetry Day 2020 (72nd, March)

My most popular Monday Musings posts were:

• Some new releases in 2020 (January 2020)
• Australian Gothic (19th century) (December 2012)
• Allen & Unwin’s House of Books (July 2020)

My New Releases posts seem popular, having featured the last two years. Australian Gothic has also featured in the top three for a few years. But, I’m surprised to see Allen & Unwin’s House of Books, which was only published in July, appearing as the third most popular Monday Musings this year.

Random blogging stats

The searches

One of my favourite parts of this highlights post is sharing some of the search terms used to reach my blog, but this year that aspect of the end-of-year stats has been flakey. However, I did glean a few that might interest – and hopefully, entertain – you.

• several searches seemed to be for a school or college assignment about Sherwood Anderson’s short story “Adventure”. The searches included: who should be blame for alice’s tragedy; alice is the one to be blamed for her tragedy. do you agree?; explain. adventure sherwood anderson; and explain the significance of the title ‘adventure’ by anderson. Don’t you love how some have just typed in the whole question?
• I have reviewed an essay by Sebastian Smee but I don’t think that will have helped this searcher: does wellesley have a non-credit on-line course taught by sebastian smee
• relevant to this year’s second top post, here is one search: what type of satire is mark twain’s a presidential candidates 
• and, my favourite: word association. what comes into your mind about australian literature? You know what I’m going to ask: What words come to your mind when you think about Aussie lit?

Other stats

I wrote thirteen (nearly 8%) fewer posts in 2020 than in 2019, averaging under 13 posts per month. This resulted in a small drop in my blog traffic.

Australia, the USA, Britain, in that order, continue to be the top three countries visiting my blog. The next three slots went, respectively, to India, the Philippines and Canada. India has been fourth for two of the last three years but, this year, the Philippines jumped from its usual 6th place to 5th, edging out Canada. This is largely due to Philippine-born Merlinda Bobis’ Fish-hair woman.

I’d like to thank all of you who commented on my blog this year. I’m thrilled that, although my blog traffic dropped a little this year, my comments count increased by 12%, which is heart-warming because the conversations have to be one of blogging’s biggest delights. The friendly but fearless sharing of sometimes opposing ideas – you know who you are! – demonstrates that social media can be positive and respectful.

Challenges, memes and other things

I only do one challenge, the AWW Challenge, which I wrapped up last week, and one regular meme, #sixdegreesofseparation run by Kate (booksaremyfavouriteandbest). I occasionally do others, which you can find on my “memes” category link.

I also took part in Lisa’s (ANZLitLovers) Indigenous Literature and Thea Astley weeks, Bill’s (The Australian Legend) AWW Gen 3 Week, and, more casually, in Nonfiction November, because all these align with my reading practice.

Each year, I like to host some guest posts but I have already mentioned these in my opening paragraph. You can find them at this link.

Being blogging mentor for the New Territory  program has been a major highlight over recent years. It was set to continue, until you-know-what. I don’t know whether it will return next year. Meanwhile, I have enjoyed following the writings of several “alumni” who are continuing their literary reviewing and criticism journeys. Rosalind Moran’s well-timed Overland post on the value (or not) of lists, caught the eye of several bloggers over the last month! Amy Walters has revamped her website to include links to her other writings, and Angharad has continued to be an active blogger as well as occasionally writing other articles. Shelley Burr, on the other hand, won a Debut Dagger for her Aussie noir unpublished manuscript, Wake. How lucky am I to know these great young women.

And so, 2021 …

As I say every year, a big thanks to everyone who read, commented on and/or “liked” my blog last year – and to all you other wonderful bloggers out there. I’m really sorry that I don’t always manage to visit everyone as much as I’d like. I wish you all good reading in 2021, and look forward to discussing books with you at your place or mine!

Finally, huge thanks to the authors, publishers and booksellers who make it all possible (and who have put up with my extreme tardiness this year). Let’s hope 2021 will be better for us all.