“What is clear at this point, though, is that beyond the covers and critics, the signings and sequels, the bestsellers and the best-ofs, our love of reading exceeds the traditional ways books have been discussed. We don’t want to be pitched, scolded, flattered, implored, or instructed; we want to revel in reading and to find others who share our passions. Engaging with fellow readers feels so crucial because what we want from books is impossible. We read to be inspired and we read to deal with sadness. We read to feel connected just as we read to be alone. We read to seem smart and we read because we are all too aware of our ignorance. We read for story and for character and for beautiful sentences and ideas and escape and information and to pass the time and to make time slow down. Only other readers understand this.” And, by golly, I believe this even more today than I did 365 days ago. But it’s one thing to believe something is true and another thing entirely to see it over the course of year. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, you might get a kick out of the 50 best Book Riot posts from last year.) Here’s just a taste of what you’ve helped us do in our first year: Number of people who have read Book Riot: 1.5 million+
Posts written: 2200+ Number of posts mentioning 50 Shades of Grey: 41 Number of posts mentioning Ulysses: 36 Most frequently mentioned literary character: Harry Potter Number of posts mentioning bacon: 16 Reader comments: almost 10,000 Total number of books mentioned: more than 6000 Facebook fans: 25,000+ Total number of trolls: 1 Active Book Riot writers: 27 Monthly traffic Increase from Oct, 2011 to Sept, 2012: 500%+ Percent Change in how interested I am in reading about the death of publishing: -86796% Percent change in how confident I am that story-lovers have little to fear: 281%
We thank you all for reading, and for giving us the chance to be part of your book-loving life. If you’ve got an idea for us, drop us a note: bookriot@bookriot.com. Alright, then. Time to get back to the riot.
