As 2011 approaches, it's time to take stock of what has proven most popular on this blog in 2010, and an eclectic mix it is.
Statistically, two types of post make it to the top 10 (for which the threshold is 1106 unique readers). There are those which gather enough readers in the first few days, and those which have a steady readership month after month. Those which make it onto the list in the former category all date from the later months of the year, as this blog's traffic has grown significantly in 2010. Some of the most popular came as a real surprise and are either gaining traffic from other popular sites or, in one or two cases, must have been recommended for students.
So here they are, most popular first.
1. The economics of bookselling (4354)
2. Sense and nonsense about happiness (3976)
3. Open source industrial organisation (3760)
4. The best five economics books (2693)
5. Review of The Enlightened Economy by Joel Mokyr (2607)
6. The Enlightened Economist's Books of the Year (2551)
7. Review of Losing Control by Stephen King (1861)
8. Economics Made Fun (1513)
9. Review of Fault Lines by Raghuram Rajan (1504)
10. The Well-read Young Economist (1106)
Needless to say, I would never have predicted the top ten. So in 2011 I shall carry on with the random approach to posting here – books that arrive serendipitously from publishers, books that I buy on impulse, those I spot through reviews elsewhere, those I read for my own work, some reflections on the economics of the books business – and in particular in the early part of the year, some tastes of my own forthcoming book The Economics of Enough: How to run the economy as if the future matters. (The Facebook page for it is up but pretty empty at the moment – same link for later, though.)
I'll start on that in the New Year. For now, though, the theme of safeguarding the future and having an eye to our legacy is one worth reflecting on as we celebrate the start of 2011.
Congratulations on your blog, Diane. Keep up the good work.
One aspect of your “top 10” appears to be that the most read posts are not necessarily those with the most comments. This is not a criticism but an observation. The blog comment policy of requiring registration (and therefore avoiding anonymous and rude comments – a good policy!) may affect this.
Thank you!
Your point about comments is correct of course. I don't at present have the resource to monitor comments and so the hurdle is higher than for many blogs. I also have concerns about the way many people use online anonymity – after all, this is an economics blog, not a forum for dissent against authoritarian government.
In addition, far fewer people write comments than have registered so registration isn't the only barrier. But now the blog is growing in readership, I might have to review the policy.