Tagged: the hunger games and ancient rome
The Best and Worst of November 2013
I can’t believe it’s December already. Where did November go? Obviously it was in a sick, flu-filled haze for me but it still seemed irregularly short. Now I have to start thinking about holiday shopping. Ugh.
On a slightly more cheerful note, the good news is that yesterday (November 30th) The Mad Reviewer got its 100,000th view since January 13, 2012. I almost did a happy dance at that news because it hasn’t even been two years of blogging yet! In addition to that, in November I received 5,827 views, which includes 3,865 unique views. That’s significantly up from September, the last month where my stats weren’t inflated by a controversial post.
So what were the best articles this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
4. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
Meh, none of these are a surprise. With the popularity of The Hunger Games as a novel study book as well as the popularity of Game of Thrones, it’s not that shocking that these two were vying for the #1 spot all month. I mean, the Game of Thrones article only beat The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome by 10 hits. That’s pretty good.
So what were my worst posts this month?
3. The King’s Man by Pauline Gedge
4. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
5. The Scourge by A. G. Henley
All of these listed here as the worst posts are all about pretty darn good books, especially Black Ships and The Scourge. It’s not that surprising how such good books get ignored in favour of novel study books or popular TV shows (since the GoT hits come mostly from show-related search terms). That’s just how the internet is, but it doesn’t make me any less proud of these reviews.
Other than being miserable for two weeks, November was a pretty good month for me. How was it for you? Are you excited about the upcoming holidays in December?
The Best and Worst of June 2013
Yes, my post is late today! Well, that’s because it’s Canada Day and I’m sick (again) with a sore throat and runny nose. Nothing unusual there so don’t panic; I’m just feeling miserable and am a little crankier than usual.
If you look at the stats for this time last year, they went down as well as most of my traffic seems to come from students looking for help on school assignments. That’s why in June I only received 3,803 views and 2, 014 unique visitors. Still respectable, but nothing really to brag about.
So on that note, let’s look at what my top posts in June 2013 were:
1. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
2. Why no Writer Wants to Tackle Chronic Pain
4. End of Days by Eric Walters
5. An Apology to Self-Published Writers
None of these is really that surprising. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome has made this list every month since May 2012 and the rest are either novel study books or are particularly clicky articles that people read, shared and commented on. Obviously that drove the views through the roof for these particular articles.
So then what were the worst articles/book reviews in June?
3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
4. The 3 Best Books to Read in the Bathroom
5. Rot & Ruin by Jonathon Maberry
None of these is all that surprising seeing as some are not particularly popular self-published books or books from older series that have already been finished. The only real puzzler here is Rot & Ruin by Jonathon Maberry because while it’s not the most popular book ever written, it does have a decent fan base. Oh well; that’s just how it goes sometimes.
The Best and Worst of May
I’m going to try something new here. On the first of every month, I’ll recap my most viewed and least viewed posts in case you’re curious as to what people are actually looking at on my site. So here are the five best posts last month:
1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman
5. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
I’m actually not at all surprised this time, aside from the fact that Flowers for Algernon has surpassed my popular cheat-sheet on allusions for The Hunger Games novel study. But it’s not really all that surprising since Flowers for Algernon is another popular novel study book. It probably won’t stay on top in June because school is going out. Now, here are the worst posts of May (excluding site announcements):
1. Run Like Jager by Karen Bass
2. Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge
3. The Many Diseases Found in Fiction (YA Fiction in Particular)
4. The Seven Songs of Merlin by T. A. Barron
5. Seer of Egypt by Pauline Gedge
Again, not really surprising, but notice that two out of the five books are by Pauline Gedge. I guess both she and ancient Egypt aren’t nearly as popular as I thought.