Yes, we realize January 1 is still a few days away, but tomorrow we begin a multi-part post that will extend several days past that holiday, so permit us to extend to all our subscribers and visitors an early Best Wishes for a Joyful and Prosperous 2010:
The past year has been one of mixed blessings for folks attempting to build a private library. Many of us, for example, know someone who has lost their job, or their home, or is otherwise in difficult financial circumstances. This has led in some areas to a noticeable rise in yard and/or garage sales, one of several venues that we have promoted in these posts as an inexpensive source of books for one's home library.
We stand by this counsel. You can help yourself and the persons holding such sales by making a generous purchase of books whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself.
It's hard to believe this blog has only been online nine months (today marks nine months exactly since we launched The Private Library on 29 March 2009). Perhaps the 278 consecutive posts account for how tired we are!
Frankly, we did not know (and, for reasons that will become clearer shortly, we still do not know) just how well such a specialized blog would fare in the blogosphere. We don't focus on sex or sports, so a million unique visits per day is out of the question. Our subscriber statistics have been trending up for several months now), but the trend resembles the long and gradual rise that a car makes traveling away from the coast towards slighter higher elevations inland, not the steep and dramatic ascent that one gets climbing a mountain.
We do not attribute this to a lack of interest in books or home libraries. We knew going in that it would be very difficult for a specialized blog to get attention in the blogosphere, especially since we do not permit advertising on this blog and thus cannot benefit from the cross-promotions that this entails. We have to rely on word-of-mouth.
Fortunately, we have received a few accolades, and several of our more zealous subscribers have actively promoted The Private Library to their friends, neighbors, relatives and anyone else they could think of who might have an interest. We are very grateful for this support!
A look at the overall statistics for the past nine months indicates that we have had visitors from an astounding 89 different countries. Considering the United Nations only recognizes 192 sovereign nations, we consider this a pretty good batting average, all things considered. Since this is an English-language blog, our most consistent visitors have hailed from nations where English is the native language: the USA, Great Britain, Canada and Australia. But we also have a substantial core of repeat visitors from countries where English is a widely utilized second language, such as many of the nations of Western Europe. Over the next few months we hope to examine some of the major European literary traditions in light of this continued support.
What we still find a bit puzzling is the lack of comments. With folks from 89 different countries stopping by, one would think the circumstances of collecting books in such a diversity of geopolitical environments would lend itself to someone actually speaking out about their own collecting interests, or at least taking issue with (or supporting) one of our own posts. Perhaps this blog is too young yet for such participation.
In any event, we have some great posts planned for 2010, so don't change that channel....
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