Reader’s Almanac looks back after two years

This month marks the second anniversary of Reader’s Almanac. Many thanks to all our readers for your support and comments—and to our legion of guest bloggers who have generously contributed so many illuminating and popular posts this past year. This seems an appropriate time to reflect on which posts readers have enjoyed the most.

Reader’s Almanac Top Ten for the past year (7/11 – 7/12)

1. Andy Borowitz’s marketing copy for The Library of America: “Does being funny get you girls?” – March 17, 2011
2. Looking back: what readers enjoyed most from Story of the Week – January 4, 2012
3. Forthcoming from The Library of America (Summer–Fall 2012) – February 1, 2012
4. The 50 Funniest American Writers: Who made the list? – August 11, 2011
5. Jim Moore on how reading Kenneth Rexroth changed his life – August 16, 2011
6. Forthcoming from The Library of America (Winter–Spring 2012) – August 1, 2011
7. Lev Grossman on Ernest Hemingway, verbal membrane, and The Sun Also Rises – August 30, 2011
8. The “Best” Short Stories? Two lists—one recent and one from 1914—show their strengths and limitations – June 6, 2011
9. Truman Capote and Harper Lee: Immortalizing each other in fiction – October 1, 2010
10. Andy Borowitz on the challenge of selecting the 50 funniest American writers – October 13, 2011

These findings suggest many of our readers were looking for laughs this past year: three of the top ten posts relate to LOA’s breakout bestseller, The 50 Funniest American Writers*: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (*According to Andy Borowitz). We were delighted that our January recap of the most popular entries on Story of the Week attracted so much attention. Anyone who enjoys Reader’s Almanac should certainly subscribe to this weekly mailing. And we are very pleased that two of our guest blog posts ranked so high. Moore and Grossman are standouts among a score of exceptional contributions in our “Influences” series. But perhaps the biggest surprise is the new life awarded to a 2010 blog post about the memorable friendship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee. Readers made it not only one of the year’s most popular posts—they vaulted it onto the all-time top ten roster (see below).

Reader’s Almanac All-Time Top Ten (from 2010-2012)

1. Andy Borowitz’s marketing copy for The Library of America: “Does being funny get you girls?” – March 17, 2011
2. The Best-Selling Titles in The Library of America’s First Three Decades – January 3, 2011
3. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Bob Dylan: Desolation Angels led to “Desolation Row” – October 21, 2010
4. Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita first published in the U.S. 52 years ago – August 18, 2010
5. Looking back: what readers enjoyed most from Story of the Week – January 4, 2012
6. Forthcoming from The Library of America (Summer–Fall 2012) – February 1, 2012
7. The 50 Funniest American Writers: Who made the list? – August 11, 2011
8. Truman Capote and Harper Lee: Immortalizing each other in fiction – October 1, 2010
9. Adam Levin: American literary influences on The Instructions – January 19, 2011
10. James Baldwin on hearing Martin Luther King preach in Montgomery – January 14, 2011

Being funny may not get him girls but it does keep Andy Borowitz atop the top ten list. Since July 2010 we have published 320 blog posts, and a number of our earliest posts continue to hold their own: in particular, Allen Ginsburg and Bob Dylan reading at Jack Kerouac’s grave and the tortuous history of how Lolita got published. One of our first guest bloggers, Adam Levin remains the most popular. But much more remarkable is the phenomenon of readers reviving old posts. This happened not only with the Capote-Lee piece but also with James Baldwin’s insightful account of hearing twenty-nine-year-old Martin Luther King preach in 1961. That joins the list for the first time with this update. We hope publishing this list will lead many of you to discover what others have found enduring in these posts—and to find some gems on your own among the others.

Also of interest:

• “Influences” posts by Deborah Baker, Kate Christensen, Jennifer Gilmore, Lauren Groff, Lev Grossman, Alan Heathcock, Adam Levin, Dinaw Mengestu, Jim Moore, Manuel Muñoz, Geoffrey O’Brien, Arthur Phillips, Carl Phillips, Karen Russell, Timothy Schaffert, Philip Schultz, Mark Statman, Emma Straub, J. Courtney Sullivan, Ellen Ullman, and Adam Wilson