I cannot believe I’ve been keeping this blog going weekly (with a few delays) for almost four years. This is well after the Golden Age of blogging in the early 00’s, and even, you could argue, in a nearly post-website era. Be honest, how often do you leave your Social Media of choice and check a web site directly? Yeah. Me neither. So, running something like this can feel, at times, like shouting into to void. It can be hard to see any growth on a day-to-day basis.
And yet…
Growth happens:
The raw numbers are nothing ground-breaking. You could even call them ‘humble’. That’s over triple where we started in 2020. That’s kind of insane. The story of those top-level numbers tell me that most folks hop on, read one thing, and don’t come back, but that can’t be everything. Literally tens of you might read several posts, or, precious gems that you are, read weekly.
But, you know I’m not going to stop there. Perish the thought! While I was looking at the numbers, I got curious about more than just raw view stats. We’re going to look at trends in what I’ve created over time, and what The People Want.
Posts of the First Four Years:
Topical Articles:
While the Bookshelf’s bread-and-butter is book reviews. I do write other things:
When I look at that chart, my hard pivot away from writing advice really stands out. There are approximately 1,032 writing advice blogs, pods, channels, and pages on the internet. 90% of those are written by people with more expertise and authority than I have. I’m not saying that I know nothing worth sharing – I feel like I’ve definitely become a better writer than I was when I started in 2018. Rather, I decided to leave advice in the rearview for now because anything I have to share has been better said by others many times over. I try to point you in their direction with Resources: Writing Advice content when I can.
In the past 18 months, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with the occassional editorial on current events. Look for more of that in the future.
Book Reviews:
The excellent folks over at Writing Excuses ran an interesting series in season 11 or 12 on Elemental Genres. Basically, they point out that the genre a book gets shelved under in a store or library has everything to do with the aesthetics of the story, and nothing to do with the mechanics or themes. Is there a dragon or magic? Fantasy. Is there a robot or a space ship? Sci fi. That’s what I’m calling the “Bookstore” genre. Within those umbrellas, your story could be any type. Is is a mystery? a romance? a tragedy? The different structures, feelings and emotional notes hit shape the true heart of a story, regardless of external trappings. Hold onto that thought. It will be relevant in a few paragraphs.
True to theme, the overwhelming majority of our posts fit the “Bookstore” genre traditional fantasy, though sci fi and urban fantasy are signigicant chunks.
I think it is more interesting to see my tastes shift over time. It took about a year for me to commit to this being mostly a fantasy blog. 2021 was a relatively big year for urban fantasy, while 2022 was the year of perfect fantasy – sci fi balance. Last year was my high for genres outside the Big 3 with 13 total reviews.
Did you hold onto that thought? Looking at secondary tags, far and away my favorite sub-genre is adventure, which sounds right – I love reading for escapism. However, many of my favorite books are heavy on the drama, mystery, or comedy, which have strong showings.
Now, I can imagine you asking, “Josh, do you know how your bookshelf genre reading habits overlap with your elemental genres?” Oh, ye of little faith, I have numbers for that as well.
Statistically, fantasy-adventures were likely to be a common pairing, and,they are, but it’s interesting how many other mash-ups appear before we get to our next “-adventure” combo. This list rings true. I definitley love a good juicy drama, or a lampooning fantasy farce.
Drumroll, Please, for the Most Read Posts…
I would not have expected it, but people have really enjoyed the Twist on Tropes series, where I break down common or proposed variations on common fantasy cliches. 7 Magic Systems almost has more reads than the next four posts combined. … two of which are other Trope Twisters. I’m pleased to see that my how-to on sharing regular docs to your Kindle has some staying power, and I’m glad we raised a bit of awareness on the recent wave of book bans.
The fact that a 20-year-old series written by an international best-seller with a fifty-year career is our most read review fits a trend I see, both here and on the Facebook page: the most popular books get the most interaction. It’s charming, in a way. There are so many books out there in the world, it’s hard to find someone who has read the same books as you, even if your tastes align. I see people every day jump at the opportunity to share their mutual love of an already-famous thing.
I wish I could do something about the other side of that coin: when people see content about a book they don’t recognize, they mostly seem to shrug, say “never heard of it”, and move on. I am passionate about raising awareness of less-well-known gems. A couple of these made the list – I see Miss Percy #1 and Viscera in the 20’s. Some of my favorite unsung stories which missed the cut, in no particular order, are Crier’s Knife, Marked Territory, The Midlife Crisis of Commander Invincible, The Last Human, Ghost Talkers, and David Mogo: Godhunter.
Conclusion:
Really, I just want to thank you (yes, you!) for being awesome. I appreciate you taking five minutes out of your busy week to read my small-but-mighty book blog. I hope you’re encouraged, I hope you’re inspired, and, most of all, I hope you find something to read.
Happy reading, folks, and Happy New Year.
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