Most popular posts of 2009

I thought I'd take a look at the blog's traffic since its inception in July until the end of 2009 and find out which posts were the most popular (beyond the top level; and I don't have a clue how many people are reading in a reader). Overall visitor traffic is remarkably flat, with a few spikes.

The spike towards the end is my recent Blogs of the Year post which, thanks to a plug on The Rap Sheet, attracted quite a few visitors. Up until then, my most popular post on any single day had been my review of Go to Helena Handbasket by Donna Moore. The most popular individual posts of the year across the whole period were:

Review posts
1. The Lime Pit by Jonathan Valin
2. Go to Helena Handbasket by Donna Moore
3. The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
4. Black Out by John Lawton
5. The Killing of Strangers by Jerry Holt
6. The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin
7. The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
8. The Builders by frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan
9. Harold Shipman: Prescription for Murder by Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie
10. Inspector Mallon by Donal McCracken

General posts
1. Blogs of the Year
2. The monster arrives
3. Pre-order splurge
4. Necessary evil?
5. Putting cartography back on the map
6. Back to square one
7. I don't remember
8. Ohio-Kentucky crime fiction
9. The lazy Sunday service (6th Sept)
10. Rethinking maps

Overall, the general posts received more visits than the reviews, which surprises me. And of the reviews, only Go to Helena Handbasket is one of my books of the year. Having kept an eye on traffic I am still completely clueless as to what posts will and won't attract interest, which is probably no bad thing. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by in 2009 and became a tiny bit of the blue line above.

Best crime novel reads, 2009

A great year of reading. Since starting to blog my reading has had a fresh burst of life as I've discovered loads of new authors and their work (all but one of the books below were authors new to me this year). I'd like to thank all my fellow crime fiction bloggers who have done so much to diversify and enliven my reading over the past few months, especially those who gave me specific recommendations.

Here are my top ten reads of 2009 (from when I started my blog reviews in July), only three of which were published in 2009.

1. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (1947 in German, translated 2009)

2. Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (2006)

3. Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland (2006)

4. The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees (2007)

5. The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski (2005)

6. The Foreign Correspondence by Alan Furst (2006)

7. Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty (2009)

8. Walking the Perfect Square by Reed Farrel Coleman (2002)

9. Go to Helena Handbasket by Donna Moore (2006)

10. The Twelve by Stuart Neville (2009)

I'll be submitting these to Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise who is running her annual collection of best crime reads, 2009 (nominated books do not have to be published in 2009). To participate click here.

Alone in Berlin was the stand out book for me; an astonishing novel first published in German in 1947. A book I've recommended to many people.

So long 2009

All years have their ups and downs, but for me personally 2009 had more ups than downs - in fact, in many ways, it's been a bit of a stellar year. I'm probably a little unusual in that respect vis-a-vis most people in Ireland as the year has generally been an unmitigated disaster with rapidly rising unemployment, wages cuts, collapsing house prices, severe flooding, and general all round misery.

From my perspective though:
The Rule Book finally saw the light of day.

The 12 volume International Encyclopedia of Human Geography was published.

Rethinking Maps followed shortly afterwards.

I submitted two new books - Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life (MIT Press) and the 2nd edition of Key Thinkers on Space and Place (Sage)

We put up the Atlas of Cyberspace up as free PDF download (my only book to briefly break into Amazon top 100 sales rank) and gave it a new life.

I finished a ten year stint as Editor of Social and Cultural Geography

I was appointed Editor of Progress in Human Geography

I got the green light to start a new journal, Dialogues in Human Geography (Sage)

The first books in the Key Concepts series I edit were published (Sage) and the first books in the Irish Society series were commissioned (Manchester University Press).

I travelled to some interesting places: Armenia, Ohio, Kentucky, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Germany, UK

We moved into the Blue House back in January

I started two blogs - The View from the Blue House in July, and Ireland After NAMA in November.

I discovered the world of blogging in general and some great blogs and communities

My reading got a new burst of life as I discovered loads of new authors whose other works I want to read and I read loads of fabulous books.

On the negative side, I've taken a 20 percent cut in my take home pay and been trying to fight a rearguard action on cuts to the institute I run. 2010 will be an interesting year on that front. I'm genuinely worried about the hole Ireland finds itself in and the government's handling of the crisis, and my fear is that things are going to get worse before they get better and it'll be a slow climb back to where we were. I also failed to find either agents or publishers for Saving Siobhan and The White Gallows.

I doubt I'll have another year like that any time soon. So long 2009, you were a rare vintage ...

The Lazy Sunday Service

Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise is running her annual collection of best crime reads, 2009 (nominated books do not have to be published in 2009). To participate click here.

My posts this week
Back to square one
The microgeography of the Live Register in Ireland
Saving Siobhan
Finished and famished
Another (expected) twist in the banking crisis
Review of Stiff by Shane Maloney
New earnings and employment data
Review of The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L.C. Tyler
Happy Christmas
Review of Frost at Christmas by R.D. Wingfield