One Year Ago...

One year ago, I was one year younger.

One year ago, the average word count for my posts was about 300.

One year ago, my writing was juvenile.

One year ago, I didn’t exactly know, where, to, place, commas.

One year ago, I placed emoticons at inappropriate places. :)  ;P >:(

(and parentheses, too)

One year ago, I didn’t realize that “The arrow affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping,”

or that “Sue accepted all party invitations, except ones from George.”

One year ago, this blog was all white and bland.

One year ago, I used the words, “thought-provoking” and “intriguing” way too much.

One year ago, I blogged about uninteresting topics, such as insecticides, and 

made impossible goals, like reading only classic books over the summer.

One year ago, I discovered the word novella and didn’t stop saying it for an entire week.

One year ago, I created the goal that I would inform the world of great books.

One year ago today, I created The Bookshelf: Book Reviews, Recommendations, and News

by Jacob Hopkins.

And I would say that it’s been a pretty good year.

Stats, Part II

Last August, I shared with you some of the various statistics of The Bookshelf and its viewers. Now it is May, one day before The Bookshelf’s first birthday, and I’m ready to share with you some new, more accurate stats about this, in my opinion, great book blog.

The Bookshelf has been receiving more pageviews, more comments, and more foreign visitors than ever before. Below, I have separated the various stats into different paragraphs:

Pageviews: They generally range from 30-65 per day, but they are very inconsistent. For example, on May 1st, I received 41 pageviews, then on May 2nd, 34 pageviews, and on May 3rd, only 16 pageviews. At first, I assumed days that I posted on would have a higher amount of pageviews than those that I didn’t. However, May 1st had the most pageviews out of any day in the first week of May, and I didn’t post anything that day. I didn’t post anything the day before, either. Oddly, I did post on both the 2nd and the 3rd. That’s some strange stuff. 

The Bookshelf on an iPhone

Search Engines and Keywords: About thirty viewers have found my blog through Google and another seven through Bing. I’m so happy to see that I’m “search-able”. That’s great (and in retrospect, a little creepy, too)! What I find strange is what search keywords are used to find my blog. Of course, there’s the obvious ones, like “the bookshelf jacob hopkins”, “the bookshelf jake hopkins”, and “the bookshelf jacob”. But then there are the odd ones, which people clearly weren’t intending to find a book review blog with. For example, “film reel tattoo” (I do have a picture of a film reel on the Books into Movies poll page), “happyface emond” (I wrote a review of this book), and “what is the book before the throne of fire” (which I blatantly answered here, “…from The Red Pyramid, the book before The Throne of Fire…”).

Web Browsers: Mozilla Firefox leads the competition with a little over 50% of the pageviews. Internet Explorer comes in second, with 36% of the pageviews. Apple’s Safari web browser is third, Google Chrome is fourth, and Java is trailing along at the end with fifth place.

Operating Systems: As expected, there’s the usuals, Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Macintosh, and the lesser known Linux. What I’m really excited about, is that I have 23 pageviews from iPods/iPhones and one pageview from both a Blackberry and an iPad. I think it’s so cool that someone is reading my blog on a portable device. They could be risking their lives, looking at their mobile devices while driving, for me and my book blog. Not that I recommend web browsing while driving….

Foreign Visitors: I saved the best for last! The majority of my blog viewers come from the U.S., but I also receive pageviews from several other countries. Shall I list them all? I shall: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. That means, including the U.S., I receive pageviews from twenty-five countries. Twenty-five! That’s twenty-two more than last August, when I published my first stats post. Excluding the U.S., Russia has the most amount of pageviews, followed by Canada in second and South Korea in third. Please, please, please keep visiting foreign visitors. I wish I could thank all of you individually. Hopefully, a big group thank you will suffice – please see a “Thank You!” message on the right side of the blog, under the blog archive.

I believe that I have covered all statistics that are made available to me. Now it’s time to prepare for tomorrow’s one year birthday. But before I leave, I must give a HUGE “thank you” to everyone everywhere who has visited, commented, or voted on The Bookshelf. I am honored to have had such a successful first year, but I would have been lost without you, the readers.

Thank you,

Jacob 

(images via and via and via)

The Throne of Fire: Hieroglyphic Heroes

Rick Riordan, one of my all-time favorite authors, just recently released The Throne of Fire, the second book in his Egyptian mythology series, The Kane Chronicles. In 2005, Riordan, once an adult mystery author, released his first novel for middle readers and young adults, The Lightning Thief. This Greek mythology adventure mystery novel spawned the widely popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Upon ending Percy Jackson’s story in 2009, Riordan created two new series, another one about Greek mythology and one about Egyptian mythology. Despite taking different directions and adding new characters to his more recent books, Riordan’s books remain the best of the best, garnering many accolades and number one positions on bestseller lists. His previous books have been called “clever”, “adventurous”, and “witty”. The Throne of Fire lives up to the level of greatness that its predecessors created.

A warning to all: Spoilers from The Red Pyramid, the book before The Throne of Fire, are present in this review. Proceed with caution.

The Throne of Fire started off with a bang. Taking place a few weeks after the end of The Red Pyramid, Carter and Sadie, the book’s sibling protagonists, find themselves in the Brooklyn Museum, scouring for a scroll, a piece of The Book of Ra. Ra, the sun god, has been in hibernation for centuries, but Sadie and Carter want to attempt to bring him back to Earth using the powers that they have as Egyptian magicians. The siblings believe that bringing Ra, the original Egyptian god, back will allow them to defeat Apophis, an evil snake spirit that wants to swallow the world. Sounds like Carter and Sadie are saving the world, right? That’s not what some people think.

The majority of the other magicians think that bringing gods into the mix will only worsen the world’s problems. They believe that the gods are manipulative, greedy, and too powerful. It sounds like they’re trying to do what’s best too, right? No. The magicians, especially the powerful ones, are evil, forceful, antagonizing people who try to stop Carter and Sadie from retrieving the remaining two pieces of The Book of Ra, the book that will revive Ra. With the ever-present threat of Apophis and evil magicians looming over them, the sibling duo travels the world in search of the rest of The Book of Ra. Along the way, they encounter a few friendly gods, many menacing gods, water demons, evil ice cream men, and, of course, a giant baboon.

Told from two witty and fascinating point-of-views, The Throne of Fire is spot-on. Just like, The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire is an audio transcript from a cassette given to the author by the main characters. This book is a daring, mysterious, humorous experience. Its magical spells and memorable characters will stay with you long past the final page. You will be dazzled by its rich setting and lyrical descriptions. Rick Riordan is the ultimate author and his novels are the ultimate stories. 

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

Gary D. Schmidt: Author of Flawless Prose

Gary D. Schmidt, an author for over fifteen years, has been praised numerous times by numerous reviewers. “There is no limit to what Schmidt may accomplish,” says Liz Rosenberg of the Boston Globe. Winner of the Newbery Honor for his books Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, which also received a Printz Honor, and The Wednesday Wars, Gary D. Schmidt has shown excellence in young adult literature, especially historical fiction. He makes “the implausible believable and the everyday momentous,” says Booklist in a starred review of The Wednesday Wars. I have read, and loved, cherished, and celebrated, books by Gary D. Schmidt, and I am thrilled to review his books as part of The Bookshelf’s Favorite Author Month because he is one of my favorite authors. One review of Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars struck a chord in me, “Schmidt’s prose…is flawless,” The Bulletin. That four word simple sentence is absolutely true. Gary D. Schmidt has the writing style that superbly expresses the emotion and thought of his books. And that’s why he is a Favorite Author of the Month.

 

I have read two books by Gary D. Schmidt: The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now. The Wednesday Wars tells the story of Holling Hoodhood, a Presbyterian seventh grader in the 1960s that must visit with one of his teachers, Mrs. Baker, while all the other students, who are Catholic or Jewish, attend religious instruction. Holling is convinced that Mrs. Baker is out to get him. Mrs. Baker assigns Shakespeare’s plays for Holling to read and later for the two of them to discuss during their afternoon sessions. While wary at first, Holling comes to understand the Shakespearean pieces and relates them to his own life. With the help of Shakespeare, Mrs. Baker, and a few other friends, Holling is able to stretch limitations, overcome fear, and head forward into the future. The first person narrative of The Wednesday Wars is magnificent and poetic. Gary D. Schmidt provides great relationships and references to Shakespeare when telling Holling’s story. An excellent read – 5.0 out of 5 stars!

Okay for Now is a companion novel that follows the story of Holling’s best friend, Doug Swieteck, as he and his family are uprooted from their home on Long Island and move to, as Doug would say, “stupid” Marysville, NY. Doug is upset that he has to leave his friends and school and connections for a trashy house in a deserted town. But when Doug travels to the local library, which is “stupidly” only open on Saturdays, Doug discovers a displayed copy of John James Audubon’s Birds of America. Much like Holling with Shakespeare, Doug learns to relate his life to the majestic soars and daring falls of the pictures of the birds in the book. Despite living in a home that is torn by alcohol, abuse, lies, and war, Doug manages to escape to a different life. A life where he makes friends by delivering groceries, finds peace in painting birds, much like Audubon’s, and takes part in a play adaption of Jane Eyre, despite once being illiterate. Once again, I was in awe of the flowing prose, the well-described setting, and the beautiful pictures of Audubon’s birds, which were at the beginning of each chapter.  Okay for Now was just recently released, and I would not be at all surprised if it won a ton of awards once the book award season rolls around (the beginning of every year). 5.0 out of 5 stars

I have not read yet, but I do own, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. Much like The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, it is historical fiction. I expect it to be just as enthralling, just as heart-warming as the other books that I have enjoyed by Gary D. Schmidt.

Finally, I would just like to say how much I love Gary D. Schmidt’s books as historical novels. While, they do touch on points in history such as the moon landing and Vietnam, Schmidt puts his characters first and foremost. His books are about how his characters react to different situations thrown at them and how they develop and mature. I would say his books are more coming-of-age than historical. Yes, the time period does play an important role, especially with education and the roles of woman and children in society, but the books pay close attention to the characters, instead of focusing all the attention on the historical events. I believe this is what makes Schmidt’s prose “flawless”. No, no quotations anymore. Flawless. Now that’s coming from me. Gary D. Schmidt’s prose is flawless.

It's Favorite Author Month!

Rick Riordan

For the month of May, it will be Favorite Author Month on The Bookshelf! After doing some research, I became very disappointed. There's Favorite Book Month, Banned Books Week, Children Book Month, and Literacy Month, but there is no Favorite Author Month. I believe a Favorite Author(s) Month should be created because without authors, where are the books? Authors deserve recognition for the hard work and thought process that they put into their books!

Neal Shusterman

I thought May would be a great month to honor the favorite authors of mine, because it is also my Blogiversary Month (blogiversary - cool word, huh?) All this month I will be writing reviews and recommendations of books written by my favorite authors. Some of my favorites include Neal Shusterman, Ally Condie, Suzanne Collins, Gary D. Schmidt, Rick Riordan, Markus Zusak, John Green, Jackson Pearce, and Maggie Stiefvater.You can see their pictures scattered around this post. I though the best way to draw attention to these marvelous writers would be to create reviews that will not only praise their books, but also praise them as authors and individuals, too.

Ally Condie

Wondering how you, the readers of The Bookshelf, can celebrate Favorite Authors Month, too? It's easy:  Read your favorite books, visit the websites/blogs of your favorite authors, tell friends about the best books you've ever read, buy a new book by one of your favorite authors (authors benefit financially and spiritually when they see their fans purchasing their books), visit the library and ask the librarian for books similar to those that you enjoy, post about some of your favorite books right here on The Bookshelf in the comment section! The possibilities are endless! Just have fun and enjoy the books that you are reading. And when you're thinking, "Wow! This book is amazing!", remember the author, and just think about what an incredible person this must be to have written such a stellar book!

Because that's what Favorite Author Month is all about: reading and discovering favorite books and being so happy that someone, an author, put a certain story down on paper for the whole world to read.

What's Happening this Month?

Attention, attention! All readers near and far get ready, because The Bookshelf, on May 16th, will be turning one-year-old! I am so proud of all the progress that The Bookshelf, and I, have made. Looking at previous posts from last year, I can see how much I've grown and developed compared to newer, more recent posts. I have discovered amazing books, enhanced my writing skills, and have developed an (even) greater respect for literature. But most importantly, I believe I am starting to complete my goal: to inform the world of great books.

I am receiving more and more page views, from twenty plus countries, I am reaching out to people on different ends of the globe, I am discovering what a huge world it truly is out there, and how the people of that world can meet together and share and discuss and seek on one simple book blog. The Bookshelf is slowly, but steadily, becoming one of these meeting places. I am proud, and I am in awestruck of all of the book lovers, young, old, new, shy, loud, and all of the different literature they like, fiction, non-, realistic, fantasy, mystery, romance, poetry. For it is not me or the web or even books that keep this blog alive. It is the readers, the viewers, the commenters, the praise"ers", and the criticizers that keep this blog alive and thriving.

Thank you.

There will be many posts special just to The Bookshelf and me this month. Look forward to reviews/recommendations of Gary D. Schmidt, a favorite author of mine, a review of The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan, another favorite author, a review of Unwind by Neal Shusterman, yet another (no surprise!) favorite author, and I'm sure a few more reviews of spectacular books. (Maybe I'll make this month favorite authors month. Hmmm...) Also on the horizon: part 2 of last year's Stats, a new poll featuring graphic novels (aka, comic books!), and, most endearing to me, a poem-ish post on May 16th about all that happened in one year.

There you have it! May will most certainly be a historical month for The Bookshelf! Once again, thank you to all my readers, and I hope that I will continue to post here for quite some time.

- Jacob Hopkins

(image courtesy of Donna Hopkins, PatchWork Photos)