2014: A year in blog review

As the end of the year is upon us, I thought now would be a good time to have a look at the year as it played out on this blog.

I am faintly surprised to find myself writing another of these stats-wrap up posts, as I honestly thought that this blog would tail off to oblivion in 2014. It didn't, although it did have a name change and a gear shift in June, when Play, Eat, Learn, Live became Too Fond of Books. Turns out I need it, and as long as I do, I'll keep writing it, even if only for myself.

Following on from last year, this year saw fewer posts (114 to last year's 150) and significantly fewer PVs for most categories, with poetry being the honorable exception - the poems got a small but measurable uptick in views. Comments are almost a thing of the past here now, and I have settled into becoming a quiet little backwater of the Internet - a position that I'm very comfortable with, in truth.

The top five posts this year, in order, were:

1. Día de la Madre (Poem) - May
This poem that I wrote for Mother's Day in May was retweeted by several people, and drew a good number of PVs.

2. Taking a new approach to managing work / life stress - April
This determinedly positive "I have a plan!" post from April attracted a lot of eyeballs. In light of What Happened Next, aka The Great System Crash of August 2014, I read it now with a certain sadness and wistfulness for its optimism.

3. Friday - February
This little slice of life seemed to touch a chord with a few people. It's quite a gentle, amiable piece overall.

4. A Tale of Two Cakes and a Solar System Party - May
As is usual for my fancy-cake posts, this one got a solid readership and continues to draw new PVs as people arrive via Google searches.

5. Mirror, Mirror (Poem) - June
This is a bitter little scorpion of a self-flagellating poem, but I thought it was also quite good, and it did get read.

One thing that is worth noting is that none of these posts made it into my all-time top 10 (top honours there are still held by two restaurant reviews: of Black Ruby (2012) and Fox in the Box (2013) - and my how-to post on Dorothy the Dinosaur cake from 2012). Indeed, the highest-ranked post of this year, Dia de la Madre, sits out at 21 in my all-time list. I guess this does say that the Internet is losing interest, and also that I am not really good at self-promotion, but that is OK, I'll live.

The focus of the blog this year has been books, poems, stress, and struggling with being sick, which certainly narrows the audience by some considerable margin, but it's what I've wanted and needed to write about, so I am not concerned so much with that. Next year, I definitely hope that things pick up more for me, but I will be writing what feels authentic, regardless, because that is why I keep this blog at all.