A Month of Favorites: 5 Favorite/Most Popular Blog Posts from 2014

A Month of Favorites

For the month of December, I’m participating in A Month of Favorites hosted by GirlxoxoTraveling with T and Estella’s Revenge. We’ll be sharing our favorite reading experiences from 2014. 

This is the final post for A Month of Favorites and I have to say this has been one of the most fun events I’ve participated in all year. What’s not to love about tons of “Best of” lists about books?! 

Putting together this post was a great exercise in seeing what types of posts generate a lot of page views and/or good discussion. I learned that:

  • “Best of” lists generate lots of page views 
  • A review of an old classic can be a surprise page view grabber (maybe because no one else has reviewed this book in years, so my review is highly ranked in Google??)
  • Top Ten Tuesday and Tuesday Intros is a potent link-up combo! The Top Ten lists are so fun and get such a wide audience, while Tuesday Intros is a smaller, but very dedicated link-up.
  • Poor, poor book reviews just aren’t hacking it these days 🙁

Most Popular Blog Posts By Page Views

  1. Best Books for Holiday Gifts 2014
  2. Book Review: The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
    Who knew a review of a book published in 1980 would get so much love? Most of these page views came from Google search results, which probably means I’m the only person who has 
    reviewed this book recently…thus a higher Google ranking. Hey, I’ll take it!
  3. Best Books of 2014
    Not to be confused with the “Best Books for Holiday Gifts 2014” list that grabbed the number one slot.
  4. Best Books of 2013 / Holiday Gift List
    Does it count if a post from last year made my Top 5 for this year? Yes, it does! It’s called the gift that keeps on giving!
  5. How Many Strikes Before An Author is Out? My Experience with Liane Moriarty and Big Little Lies.
    Apparently “retiring from a very popular author” also gets love…and generates discussion (see below). 

Most “Commented On” Blog Posts

  1. Top Ten Books I’m Not Sure I Want to Read / Tuesday Intro (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage)
  2. How Many Strikes Before An Author is Out? My Experience with Liane Moriarty and Big Little Lies.
    This is also my favorite post…I kind of enjoyed going totally against the grain on this one. And, I loved the discussion it generated. I think it wins for the quality of the comments.
  3. Nonfiction November: My (Nonexistent Until Now) Year in Nonfiction
    Another one of my favorite blog events of the year…I’m already starting my TBR for next year’s Nonfiction November.
  4. Top Ten Fall Books / Tuesday Intro (The Summer of Long Knives)
  5. Top Ten Books People Tell Me to Read / Tuesday Intro (Everything I Never Told You)

And, another favorite post that didn’t make the Top 5 on either of my lists was Reading vs. Listening: Is It Fair for a Visual Person to Review Audiobooks?. Like the Liane Moriarty post, this one generated high quality of the comments. It was also comforting to find some other bloggers who can relate to my issues with audiobooks.

What were your most popular or favorite blog posts of the year?

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13 Comments

  1. I enjoyed your posts Sarah. Thanks for sharing your stats and analysis. Happy New Year!

    Posted 12.31.14 Reply
  2. Sarah, this is very interesting! I’m really not surprised that your book lists are popular; I love them! I do find it puzzling that your book reviews are not as popular because I find them very helpful. I definitely enjoyed your post on “dropping” Liane Moriarty, as well as the post on audiobooks; keep up with great work! I know 2015 will be a good one and I can’t wait to follow along. Happy New Year!

    Posted 12.31.14 Reply
  3. Cleo wrote:

    When I look at my posts that generate the most views it chimes with yours – lists are very popular as were my reviews of Agatha Christie novels, books that I couldn’t possibly say something that hadn’t been said before! I missed your post about Liane Moriarty the first time around and even though I love her novels, it IS a great post. Happy New Year and I look for to more of your excellent posts in 2015.

    Posted 12.31.14 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      I love that your Agatha Christie reviews do well…this is such an odd phenomenon (the reviews of older popular books doing better). Maybe we should explore this a bit further?

      Posted 12.31.14 Reply
  4. Great compilation of best posts for 2014. I enjoyed your Liane Moriarty post as well, although I completely disagree with you. I love her books, not so much Her Husband’s Secret but What Alice Forgot and Big Little Lies. Good luck to you as you begin a new year. You have inspired me to see which of my posts are more popular, since I am predominately a review-only blog. Ha.

    Posted 12.31.14 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      Ha – you and the rest of the world disagree with me on Liane Moriarty! I’m OK with that. That’s why books are so fun…people have different tastes and there is something out there for everyone. I started as a review only blog and still post at least one review a week, but have broaden things a bit just this year.
      Thanks for stopping by!

      Posted 12.31.14 Reply
  5. I have noticed my book reviews are the least popular posts too. I think the classics/older novels get more quality comments since more people have read it and have an opinion to share. Looks like you had a great year! Happy 2015!

    Posted 12.31.14 Reply
  6. Sonia Lal wrote:

    I’ve read lists, especially best of lists, are popular. Too bad I find them so hard to do.

    Posted 12.31.14 Reply
  7. Isn’t it sad that book reviews get so few views? Poor little reviews, feeling all lonely and neglected…lol. Seriously though, it’s probably why I’ve written so few of them lately. I know people don’t read them…heck I don’t even want to WRITE them. 😉

    Have a fantastic 2015!

    Posted 1.1.15 Reply
  8. Trish wrote:

    what fun to look back on! I haven’t analyzed my stats but it does seem like my Weekend Cooking posts are the ones that generally get the most Google traffic. I guess food is more popular than books? LOL!

    Discussions are always my favorite to read, write, and comment on. I think people don’t always know how to comment on a book they haven’t read? Not sure.

    Happy New Year Sarah!!!

    Posted 1.1.15 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      I agree on the reviews…I tend to only read other peoples’ reviews for books I’ve already read or ones I’m already considering reading. There are a few blogs where I’ll read all the reviews, but those are few and far between! Happy New Year!

      Posted 1.1.15 Reply
  9. My most popular posts last year were all from previous years and there were a couple of reviews included. Happy New Year!

    Posted 1.1.15 Reply
  10. I had two posts from previous years also make my top 5 list! Interesting how that works out! I remember commenting on your Lianne Moriarty post as I’ve never read her books and considered picking her latest one up. So glad you shared your thoughts on that one!

    Wishing you the happiest of new years in 2015!

    Posted 1.1.15 Reply

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