Happy 6th Birthday to Taking on a World of Words!

This is actually a bit delayed because I’ve been reading so much and had so many book posts lined up, but I’ve hit six years of blogging! This has almost outlasted my longest tenure at a job. It’s just younger than my marriage. This blog has been a consistent part of my life for years and I love it so much.

One of my rituals on my blogoversary is to think what my blog would be able to do if it were a child. My mother might prefer it another way, but this is what I’ve got.

• Realize the effects of decisions
• Recognize the feelings of others
• LEARNING TO READ!
• Learning to share
• Start to understand puns
• Focus for fifteen minutes

It’s off to first grade for my little blog! I hope she makes good friends.

Yet again, here are some numbers to show my blog’s growth over the past year. Numbers are taken from 14-Sep, nine days after my blogoversary. It came on so fast I didn’t have time to celebrate right away.

• Total views: 236.627 (40% increase)
• Most views in one day: Can’t find the number, but the previous record was 508 so higher than that (27-December-2018)
• Most commented post: WWW Wednesday, 17-January-2018 (unchanged)
• Total posts: 1,338 (18% increase)
• Total followers: 1,857 (18% increase)
• Top five countries for views in 2018
  • United States (unchanged)
  • United Kingdom (unchanged)
  • India (up one)
  • Canada (down one)
  • Philippines
• Top five posts for 2018
  • Homepage (unchanged)
  • Book Club Reflection: Bird Box by Josh Malerman
  • Book Review: The Tempest by William Shakespeare (3/5) (unchanged)
  • Book Review: Seriously… I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres (4/5)
  • Book Club Reflection: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (down three)
• Top five Referrers for 2018
  • Search Engines (unchanged)
  • WordPress.com Reader (unchanged)
  • GirlXOXO (primarily the Master Last of 2019 Reading Challenges) (up one)
  • WordPress Android App (down one)
  • What Cathy Read Next (unchanged)
• Top five Clicks
  • Goodreads.com (up two)
  • What Cathy Read Next blog (up three)
  • Whispering Stories blog
  • I Wuv Books blog (down two)
  • A Keyboard and an Open Mind blog
• Top five Search Engine Terms
  • Bird Box Title Meaning
  • Taking on a World of Words
  • Book Clubs Reading Still Life by Louise Penny
  • The Handmaid’s Tale Book Club Questions (down two)
  • The Tempest Book Review

It’s crazy to me how much my most popular pages are affected by movies and tv shows. I’m honored that my feelings on Bird Box became more read after the Netflix movie, but I hope those people read the books! I think WWW Wednesday is having a stronger pull over my blog and I’m really excited by that. The idea that the community has taken over and is making itself heard and connecting with each other makes me really happy. I still think I’m being plagiarized for high school essays…

Thank you all so much for reading along with my reading adventures. I love sharing a love of books with you all. You make finishing a book even more exciting!

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!