Happy First Blog Birthday!
 |
| Study for "The Birthday Party" by Thomas Cooper Gotch (Falmouth Art Gallery, via Art UK) |
“To
the End of the Word” is one year old. The
blog’s name is – with hindsight – needlessly grandiloquent. In my defence, it was thought up in ten
minutes and conditioned by the address availabilities on the Blogger
platform. In reality, the aim of the
blog was, and remains, modest: that of sharing my book reviews beyond the
Goodreads community, coupling them where possible with appropriate (mainly
classical) music and relevant illustrations.
Occasionally, I use the blog to publish the odd poem or short story. This blog has no pretensions to be a “professional”
review site – yet, it has been very fulfilling to receive feedback from other
passionate readers and also from featured authors.
One
year and seventy-six posts later, I have noticed some surprising patterns in
the visitor activity on the blog. Thus,
whereas my most popular post ever is also one of my favourite ones, there have
been posts which have been equally dear to me yet failed to draw the attention
of the blog’s readers. I have also realised
that, as far as reviews are concerned, a critical approach sometimes arouses
interest in a book more than a gushing write-up. Again, on second thoughts this perhaps should
not be so surprising – I have, myself, often been intrigued by a less-than-enthusiastic
review and given a book a chance, just as I have avoided or been disappointed
by other reads which, elsewhere, garnered plenty of five-star ratings. I guess that at the end of the day what counts
is trying to be fair and honest with both readers and authors, whilst not being
mean-spirited, especially with young or debut writers.
And
so, here are the top 5 blogposts in order of popularity.
1. Nu-Folk: A review of "Swansong", Kerry Andrew's debut novel
2. A review of "A Dedicated Friend" by 'Shirley Longford', one of the issues in the ongoing retro-horror "Eden Book Society" series on Dead Ink Books
3. Iraqi Gothic: a review of Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction
4. Holy Week, Unholy Murders: a review of "Red April" by Santiago Roncagliolo
5. Summertime Sadness: a review of The Van Apfel Girls are Gone, the debut novel by Australian author Felicity McLean
And
these are the three least-visited posts, just in case you’d like to have a look
– I trust they’re not that bad...
- A review of "The Dead Lake" by Hamid Ismailov, a magical-realist novel published by the excellent Peirene Press
- Rebels, a poem
If you’re a new visitor, welcome and I hope you’ll stay. If you’re a regular visitor, consider subscribing, following… or dropping me a line.
In the meantime, here is some festive Stravinsky to celebrate...
No comments:
Post a Comment