2011 was a good blogging year for me. My readership showed a decent growth for the year. A lot of the visitors to my blog are what I call “homework help seekers”. They are welcome but it is the people who read and comment on your posts that really matter.
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| Mr C is Very Excited Over The Blog Plans for 2012! |
I hosted two reading events in 2011. In March 2011 I hosted for the first time Irish Short Stories Week. I was very happy with the results of it. 53 stories were posted on by great readers from all over the world. This event will repeat in March 2012, in conjunction with St Patrick’s Day. In August I cohosted the second Indonesian Short Stories Week. My co-host for this event was Novroz from Jakarta. This is a much lesser known literary area so there were fewer participants but there were a lot of great posts and I still have readers from Indonesia and elsewhere coming to my blog to read posts on Indonesian short stories. I plan to co-host this again in August around the time of Indonesian Independence Day.
I participated in events focusing on literature from Germany, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria. I also participated in a very interesting event on Transcendentalism. I like to see these kind of horizon expanding events. The only reading challenge I actively participated in was The Japanese Literature Five Challenge. I passively participated in five or six others. I joined in a read along on Oliver Twist. I also posted on all five of the short stories for the Caine Prize For African Literature at the request of the publisher for the event. My guess is I will do this again in 2012 toward mid-year. I ended up being part of a group of bloggers posting and dialoguing on the stories. The stories were not the very best but it was a good learning process.
In 2011 I have seen a big increase in offers of free books for potential review. Some of these free books have been totally wonderful, some I did not get past the first page or two and some were probably great I just did not have time to read a book by a new to me author. I will always be happy to get free books. Any book I accept I will take a genuine look at. I basically will only accept E books from now on as I prefer E-Reading. My wife has also said something about too many books taking over the place!
To the wonderful so supportive people who comment on my posts all I can say is
Thank you.
My blog is very important to me. I really hope to keep blogging the rest of my life.
There will be another post on my blogging and reading plans for 2012.
My quite brilliant cousin S has been a huge help with editing suggestions.
Mel u
Good to see things going well & a hearty new year to you, your family & S for their contribution.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to participating in the Irish Short Stories week this year. It's a form that I've not really engaged with on my blog but love very much. It'll be fun deciding which stories to cover.
ReplyDeleteA very happy new year to you and yours Mel u. I look forward to following your posts in 2012.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to participate in the Irish short story month. I joined you and Novroz In August and like you, I'm amazed how many people come to my blog who are intersted in Indonesian short stories. Who would have thought. I need to read another this year, maybe more.
ReplyDeleteI wish you a great 2012.
Do you really get a lot of homework help visitors? It must be due to the fact that you read a lot of classics, I think....
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, and hope 2012 is a successful reading and blogging year for you :)
Parrish Lantern-thanks so much and I hope you have as great blogging and personal year in 2012
ReplyDeleteSeamus Duggan-I am very glad you will be joining us for Irish Short Story Week
Mel-thanks so much and I hope 2012 is a great year for you
Caroline-it will be great to have you joining in for Irish Short Story Week-Indonesian short story week still gets me readers also-it is really a rich field it just takes more research
Sam (Tiny Library)-some days I get 100s of "homework help seekers"-for example recently I got about 350 people from Tula in Russia all reading a post I wrote on Orlando by Virginia Woolf-
You had a great year Sam, here is to many more.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Congrats on all your success this year! Good luck in 2012 :)
ReplyDeleteMan of La Book-thanks very much
ReplyDeleteEmidy (Une Parole)-thanks very much for your comment and visit
Yay for a good blogging year! I look forward to sharing the coming year with you on your blog!
ReplyDeleteYou had quite a good year of blogging. Thanks for participating in Ghana Lit Week. I'm looking forward to your planned events for this year. All the best and keep on enjoying your reading and this wonderful blog.
ReplyDeletekinnareads- I enjoyed your Ghana Lit Week-the book blog world needs more things like that-I hope you will add your insights during Irish Short Story week in March and Indonesian Short Story Week in August.
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