Something Thoughtful

Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.  

                                                    KEEPING TRACK OF READERS

Beginning in 2012, I have been producing REID’S READER for over twelve years. For quite a few of those years I presented my Something New, Something Old and Something Thoughtful every Monday, excluding the summer breaks that I took. But after a number of years I found the amount I had to read, review and write on a tight schedule was becoming a burden. So I changed speed by producing my work every fortnight rather than every week, and I still follow that regimen – though it too means a lot of work.

Unlike my readers, I am able to track how many people have read my work. I can see what has been read by very many and what has been read by very few. One thing I notice is that, when it comes to my reviews of New Zealand poetry, it always gets a large readership. After all, there are very few outlets that promote and analyse poetry... and there are quite a few of poets who want to see how their work has been understood. But there is an interesting trend. Reviews that at first attract only few readers turn out later to attract many. In other words, my reviews and comments “have legs”. Looking every so often at statistics, I find what at first attracted only twenty-or-so readers has later been read by hundreds or even thousands.

Those that hit the highest numbers are most often reviews of classic works or works that have stirred up controversy. Many people have read what I have had to say about Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Honore de Balzac etc. I believe that much of this interest comes from students who are studying such works and are looking for a new angle to put in their essays and impress their tutors. According to my statistics, the second most perused work on my blog is my account of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale from his Canterbury Tales. It has been read by 16,656 readers at time of writing this. So much for the classic. As for controversial books, the most read on my blog is Kaspar Hauser, the so-called mystery about a boy who apparently came from nowhere in Germany in the early nineteenth century. Believing myself that the Kaspar Hauser story is largely a fabrication, I am still aware that his story has often been quarrelled over. Hence the controversy. It has been read on this blog by over a whopping 21,511 readers.

It would be pleasant if my postings were read by thousands of readers as soon as they first appear; but it is consoling to know that ultimately many will read the really important stuff.