Most Viewed Posts for My Blog over 10.5 Years? I'm Curious!

You have to remember that I'm just a small-time blog, one writer who for years has written for love and pleasure. There were even long stretches of time when I didn't write, not when I stopped enjoying writing but when life interfered, I guess you could say. This blog has been online for almost ten and a half years, its articles having been viewed almost 330,000 times, with almost six hundred posts.

Starting as a writing blog to feature my published work, Tom Kepler Writing quickly expanded its content to include all of my life--mirroring my writing since I tend to write about whatever is happening in my life. This lack of focus has probably diminished the marketing of my published work but has increased my understanding of my life and what I'm about as a human being. Not a bad trade-off!

As a comparison of numbers, my camping blog Green Goddess Glamping has been online for about one and a half years. It's page views as of now are 74,140. Like this blog, I am the sole writer, having written 108 original posts about camping. With my blogging experience, though, I've been more deliberate and effective in my marketing. Comparing the current blogs, in  ten and a half  years, my total page views for Green Goddess Glamping would be around 519,000. I believe the page views will be much higher, though. The camping blog has been active one seventh of the time that this blog has.

The interesting point of analysis is that even though I haven't written as regularly over time on this blog, and even though I've marketed this blog less intensely over the years, it's monthly page views are still fairly comparable to the camping blog. Why? What I've seen is that the weekly and monthly page views totals for the Green Goddess Glamping blog accumulate from just a few popular articles posted during that time. For Tom Kepler Writing, this blog, there is a steady and strong viewing of articles over many years because of viewer searches that have located older yet still interesting articles. Keeping that in mind, then over the years the camping blog will also amass a range of articles that attract readers who are searching particular camping topics. Interesting!

10 Highest Viewed Articles from This Blog, Tom Kepler Writing

Of the ten highest viewed articles, the highest was a techie article on a Facebook "Like" button. Two articles were about publishing, one article was about a movie, and half of the articles were book reviews. The book reviews were about books that can be called "popular and literary" classics. The most-viewed articles present an interesting range, both from topic and time perspectives! More specifics below.

1. New Facebook "Like" Button Added to This Blog: With the highest number of page views (11,200), this post is short, just telling where to get html to post a "Like" button on a blog page. Funnily enough, I don't even know if the August 2012 information is still current. The post was heavily view for about six months and then dropped off to essentially nothing.
2. Backlists, Self-publishing, Breakout Novels, and "The Dream": With about half the page views of the #1 post (5,520), this article was publishing in May of 2011. It had moderate page views for around two years and then had, for some reason, a great year in 2014, then settled down to a trickle or nil. It interesting aspect of this article is that it discusses backlists as a powerful business strategy for mid-level authors whose earlier novels are out of print. E-books are a way for the authors to re-invigorate their backlists. For this blog, it's my "backlist" of articles that are generating page views in numbers that are similar to my newer blog numbers, around 3-5 thousand page views per month. I think whether a mid-level author or lone blogger, having one's backlist of writing still being discovered and read is a compliment to the power and authenticity of one's writing. Folks are still reading the older stuff. Big Smile!
3. A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir--a book review: I love to read John Muir--a lot--so I guess my enthusiasm is catching. Posted in June of 2011, this article received its largest number of page views through 2015 and now has tapered off to noticeable yet fewer amounts, yet is still regularly viewed (5,350). Muir chronicles a naturalist's hike, soon after the Civil War, from the upper Midwest down to the Gulf--on a trek and ship voyage that eventually leads to Yosemite. I've reviewed about four or five pieces of Muir' writing, so if you search this blog, you'll find several enthusiastic accounts.  (This link might work: Muir.)
4. Is Huck Finn an Archetypal Hero?: Published in January of 2012, this article's title delivers the content focus. The page views (3,130) have remained consistent over all the years to the present. I think this article is discovered by students who are reading the novel. I probably wrote it while teaching the novel. The hero's journey coupled with Twain's realism--and a novel that is still consistently banned--Huck's adventure is quite a read. It's also interesting from the perspective that Twain spent the Civil War years out West after quitting (if not deserting) the Confederate army.
5. Apocalyptic Jack London--The Scarlet Plague, a review: A lot of readers don't know that Jack London, a self-educated man, was a serious socialist at a time when the common worker needed protection from the titans of industry. What made London great, though, was his love for the story he was writing, which he passes on to the reader. With a good number of readers (2,340), this review, published in October 2011, experienced three years of higher views and has now dropped to low but steady viewing. 
6. Traditional Publishers Adopt Self-publishing: This short article is about how traditional publishers began jumping on the self-publishing wave by establishing self-publishing branches of their businesses, allowing (for a price) the authors to publish using the publishing house imprimatur (a self-publishing branch version). For writers seeking publication, the article highlighted a trend developing in the industry at that time. Posted in December of 2009, the views have settled down with the settling or congealing of self-publishing avenues (3.430).
7. Ironman 2--the backstory revealed by a Marvel Comics aficionado: In May of 2010 I was inspired to write about a superhero movie. Why not? Views (2,830) were mostly for the first couple of years but have continued. Basically, after watching the movie I had some WTF questions, which a guy I know, an Ironman fan, was gracious enough to answer. He begins his responses with the following sentence: "Obviously, you were not a big Marvel Comics reader when you were younger." A fun interaction! 
8. The Old Man and the Sea--Maharishi School Student "Book Report" Reactions: As a teacher reading this novel with the class, I allowed students a variety of ways to respond to their reading experience. Their contributions? A "prequel," an "obituary," and a more traditional analysis of Hemingway's novel. I think providing students with a variety of ways to respond to the novel was something good I did as a teacher. This article was posted in February 2012 with its strongest views in the first three years of posting (1,620). 
9. Zane Grey--my love/hate relationship with his writing: Zane Grey's writing reflects both beautiful descriptions of nature, romanticism, and racial and ethnic bigotry--pretty much the norm for his time. This article was my way of personally processing those extremes. Posted December 2010 (1,730).
10. Hanging Clothes by Moonlight: Unique among the top ten most-viewed articles, this is a personal narrative essay. "I think hanging clothes to dry after washing is probably the cheapest way possible to save money and to help the environment."  Nice to see that one of my more creative pieces made the top ten. Posted November 2012 (1,220).

As a note, there is some irregularity with the total number of viewers for the articles. Blogger Analysis provided two counts, which weren't the same. I just chose one for the totals.

Just looking at these numbers and dates of publication, I have to say that probably some of the reviews of classic books and their number of page views corresponds with the time I was teaching and had attracted a number of parents, students, and school-related readers. Perhaps I don't have them now, but the backlist still regularly generates some readers. 

My lesson from this analysis is that the key to a successful blog is quality writing. If writing can create interest and joy, if it can stimulate both the intellect and the emotions, then I think interest in that writing will endure. I hope you check out some of these articles. It's fulfilling to know my writing from years past can still provide a good read. 

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John Muir Goes A-Campin' at Hetch Hetchy

The Hetch-Hetchy Valley, California, 1870s, oil on canvas by German-American artist Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), currently at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

I'm really enjoying my $1.99 ebook, John Muir's Ultimate Collection, having recently read the essay "The Hetch Hetchy Valley." This essay chronicles his camping trip into the Hetch Hetchy in 1873, before the fight to keep the Sierra Nevada valley that is near Yosemite from being dammed and flooded for water for the San Francisco area. Muir later rewrote this essay as a plea to not destroy the valley, but the original version I read is more the early writing style of Muir: innocence, wonder, and reverence. (This original essay online here.)

Muir, circa 1860 (PBS)

Muir decides to visit Hetch Hetchy during the first week of November, so there is some danger of snow. This, of course, is before satellite weather forecasting, so in his usual inimitable manner, Muir takes three loaves of bread for his food--one for the trip up, one for the trip back, and one for emergencies. He also has his blanket and a nice cup for his "complementary coffee"--Muir, the glamper! "Thus grandly allowanced, I was ready to enjoy my ten days' journey of any kind of calm or storm." 

He decides to leave the trail and follow some grizzlies to achieve a short-cut in his route, which includes some adventure through the rough country. He's careful, of course, since he doesn't want to startle the bear on a narrow canyon path only wide enough enough for one! "At first I took [the path] to be an Indian trail, but after following it a short distance, I discovered certain hieroglyphics which suggested the possibility of its belonging to the bears," a mother and her cubs. Since the essay was written, readers, you can assume he survived that adventure. Hiking escalates to mountain climbing, all the while Muir describing the experience in his highly readable style that combines travelogue with objective, scientific observation as he adventures all day and then settles in for the night. 

"Night gathered, in most impressive repose; my blazing fire illumined the grand brown columns of my compassing cedars and a few withered briers and goldenrods that leaned forward between them, as if eager to drink the light. Stars glinted here and there through the rich plumes of my ceiling, and in front I could see a portion of the mighty cañon walls, dark against the sky, making me feel as if at the bottom of a sea."

Muir discusses the history of the valley, its human occupation--and, yes, there is a snowstorm. Our intrepid traveler weathers it, and not alone. "I did not expect company in such unfavorable weather; nevertheless I was visited towards evening by a brown nugget of a wren."

This beautiful, descriptive narrative essay is a tribute to the beauty and glory of the natural world--and unfortunately, also a prescient eulogy to the now-inundated valley. This is Muir at his finest--the minimalist camper, the scientist and naturalist, and the priest of the forest cathedral.

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No Pot of Gold in Scorsese's "The Irishman"

To make a long story--or movie--short, Scorese's and Netflix's movie The Irishman unfolds like a documentary, treating characters and events objectively. This isn't necessarily bad because I enjoy watching documentaries, but the problem is that the intimate, close-up detail of the interactions of the characters carries no emotional weight. I ended up at the end of the movie saying, "Okay, but who cares?"

What "no emotional weight" means can most easily be seen by comparing The Irishman with The Godfather. Both are about Mob business and violence; however, who in The Irishman of the main characters can a viewer emotionally connect with? Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci)? No, too much reptilian cold-bloodedness. Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro)? He'd learned to kill in WWII, but many men came home from that war and, even if scarred, didn't become hitmen. Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino)? That character's myopic aggression and drive drops him from the dinner invitations list of both the Mob and audience. These three actors and their interplay are truly incredible, and it's a pleasure to watch their nuanced performances as the actors become their characters on screen. But do we care what happens to these characters? Not really, or if we do, it's more credit to the actors and audience than the characters' personalities.

In The Godfather, though, in a world of violence and murder, there exist Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and his fiance and bride, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton). These innocents, and especially Michael Corleone, provide the readers with characters who can be identified with, innocents who are unwillingly sucked into the mire of the Mob. Even Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) becomes more accessible because of the relationship between Vito and his son Michael.

In The Irishman, Sheeran's daughter Peggy is the most identifiable. As an adult, Peggy (Anna Paquin) says only seven words, yet she is the witness of the movie, the arbiter of right and wrong. She lacks the time in the movie, though, to carry the audience to its two and a half hour conclusion. At the end of The Irishman, we are left with no epiphany, no pot of gold, only the sense that we watched the lives of these characters unfold, and the only undeserved punishments received were, perhaps, those of the innocent audience watching mobsters get their deserved punishments.

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I Read a Graphic Novel. "Spider-Man Noir," and Here's What I Found Out

I was browsing at my good old local public library and wanting to try something new. On the way to the fiction section, walking down the central aisle, I passed the small graphic novel collection and thought, "Why not?" I had looked at the graphic novels before but hadn't pulled the trigger and checked one out. Why not try one?

I chose a thin book on a subject that I was familiar with and picked up Spider-Man Noir. The graphic novel's text author and goodreads self-reviewer posted the following blurb:

With great power, there must also come great responsibility - and when those in power abuse it, it's the people's responsibility to remove them. The year is 1933, and New York City is not-so-secretly run by corrupt politicians, crooked cops, big businesses . . . and suave gangland bosses like New York's worst, the Goblin. But when a fateful spider-bite gives the young rabble-rouser Peter Parker the power to fight the mobster who killed his Uncle Ben, will even that be enough? It's a tangled web of Great Depression pulp, with familiar faces like you've never seen them before!

As anyone can see, the novel's 2009 storyline is familiar and aligned to the familiar characters and events in the Spider-Man movies. However the noir aspect provides a darker and more gritty feel to the novel, captured not so much by the storyline but by the art. The pictured illustrations are literally or visually more dark than many comic books I've read. Spider-Man packs a pistol and wears a costume compiled from old, iconic wardrobe styles of the 1930s--leather bomber helmet, motorcycle goggles, trench coat, and heavy clothes of natural fiber. He can still spit the web, though, and fly through the air with spiderese.

My Conclusions

1. I found the graphic art of the novel interesting in the depiction of the times, the tone. The illustrations provided powerful and interesting images that concretized the novel's world view.
2. The graphic aspect of the novel didn't help me with the storyline. I do just fine reading a novel that is all text and with no illustrations. The pictures in my head, built through author description of character and setting and my imagination, are the real canvas upon which a textual novel is revealed. 
3. There's nothing wrong with a new experience, though, and I enjoyed the read.
4. The comic book "bubble" dialogue and description in this graphic novel were in tiny letters. Some I read by just attending closely, and for some of the novel I pulled out a magnifying glass to read. The size of the text was just small enough to require just enough effort that I was pulled away from the storyline in order to deal with the physical experience of reading.

So do I recommend the graphic novel? Sure! I experienced no epiphanies, though. It was pretty much what I expected, just smaller than I expected.

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