Thursday, March 25, 2021

Reading the Past turns 15 years old today

 

 
I first started blogging regularly at Reading the Past on March 25, 2006, so today the blog is celebrating its 15th birthday.  

Over this time, the blog has had over 1600 posts, over 1.9 million pageviews, and over 11,000 comments, which kind of blows my mind.  Every so often I debate moving to a new platform, but as anyone who collects physical books knows, the process of moving becomes more difficult the more content you accumulate.

In acknowledgment of the anniversary, I changed out the header image for the blog recently with a new photo, this time of Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire... and I'm looking forward to being able to travel again someday.

While blogging has diminished in popularity over time, I'm glad to see new historical fiction blogs continuing to pop up and think (hope!) there'll always be spaces for book lovers to congregate online, share reviews and opinions, and post thoughts about what they're reading.

Although it's a bit hard to get in a celebratory mood with everything that's been going on in the U.S. and world recently, I did want to mark the occasion somehow.  Look for a giveaway sometime in the near future.

As a look back to this blog's extended history, I thought I'd share details on what the most popular posts have been over time.  Counting down from #15 to #1, we have:

#15: The late T.D. (Tim) Griggs' guest post about the Boer War.

#14: Listing of the bestselling historical novels from 2009.

#13: Listing of the bestselling historical novels from 2011. Publishers Weekly no longer collates these annual roundups, alas.

#12: Historical fiction picks from BookExpo America from 2011.

#11: Zenobia Neil's guest post about diversity in the ancient world.

#10: Analysis of the so-called  "Puritan Maiden's Diary," a supposed primary source from the 17th century which turned out to be a fake written in the 19th century.

#9: My review of Sarita Mandanna's novel Tiger Hills, set in 19th- and 20th-century India.

#8: Guest post from Victoria Wilcox about point of view in historical fiction. If you haven't read her trilogy about Doc Holliday, I highly recommend it.

#7: Guest post from Frances Hunter about Fanny Clark O'Fallon, sister of  George Rogers Clark and William Clark, a character in their novel The Fairest Portion of the Globe.

#6: My thoughts on the similarities between two Pack Horse Librarian historical novels. I'm surprised these rumors haven't died down by now, but the post continues to get traffic, week after week.

#5: David J. Cord's guest post on Aristotle and accuracy in historical fiction.

#4: Listing of the bestselling historical novels from 2012

#3: C. W. Gortner's guest post about Marlene Dietrich, subject of his novel Marlene.

#2: Barbara J. Taylor's guest post about the Billy Sunday snowstorm in Philadelphia in 2014.

#1:  My 1000th blog post, from 2014, with looked at another blog milestone and included a preview of ten new and upcoming historicals.

Thanks to all the readers who've been following my posts, whether you're new arrivals or longtime subscribers, and to all the authors who've contributed essays and written books that I've covered here.  I appreciate it!  If you've found new reads or authors via this blog, I'd love to hear about it.

21 comments:

  1. Happy Anniversary for your blog!
    I began in January 2007 at Blogger, but a few years ago moved to WordPress.

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    1. Thanks! Congrats on your long-running blog, too. I've been thinking about moving to WordPress for a while, since I use it for other projects.

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  2. Congratulations! Hard to believe it's been so long. I remember when your blog was new.

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    1. Thanks, Vicki. It doesn't seem like that long.

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  3. Congratulations, Sarah! Your blog continues to be my favourite one that's focused on historical fiction.

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    1. Thank you, Clarissa, I'm so pleased to hear that!

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  4. Congrats! I enjoy your blog and reviews very much. Here's to another 15!

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    1. Thanks! In 15 years I should be ready to retire, if not before that. Maybe even more time for reading and blogging then...

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  5. Congratulations! Reading the Past is my favorite historical fiction blog.

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    1. Thanks so much, Alex! Your blog is awesome, and I'm always picking up ideas from it for my personal reading and for the library collection.

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  6. Congratulations! Your blog was one of the first I followed when I started blogging. Love your new header pic of Fountains Abbey. I have great memories of visits there and also of Bolton Abbey, another great place to see in Yorkshire.

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    1. Thanks, Yvonne! You have an excellent blog too. Fountains Abbey was a great place to visit, and strangely enough, it was a beautiful day and hardly anyone else was there. I haven't been to Bolton Abbey and will add it to my list. There's so much to see in Yorkshire.

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    2. There is, indeed!

      Thank you for your lovely comment re my blog.

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  7. Many, many happy returns on this anniversary of your blog. It's been such a comforting countable-on (is that a term even) since I discovered it years back. Even more so in These Times. Though I'm such an irregular that I often consume all the entries and comments late, due to Reasons, I keep counting on you and your work to keep me informed about all things historical fiction.

    Thank you so much for your work in the kind of fiction that I love.

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    1. Thanks so much for your lovely comments, C, I appreciate them all. I haven't been blogging as much as in previous years - as you said, there's just so much else to deal with and react to these days. But I still love historical fiction and expect to be around here for a while longer. :)

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  8. Sarah, Congrats, well done. I love to have my essay on minor characters in Reading the Past. What an honor!

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    1. Thanks, Julieta, and thanks again for your wonderful essay!

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  9. Congratulations on your milestone!

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