I had Big Plans for this week, but last weekend didn’t involve much brain (or much blogging), so instead I find I’ve been distracted by a delightful invitation to gaze into the navel of my blog stats. Look, fluff!

I have been inspired by Dr Laura Tisdall (herself inspired by two other blog buddies) to go dipping into my blog stats to see why people really visit There’s Always Room For One More – and what they read once they get here. For all the stats I pay attention to each month, I don’t often check search trends or enduring popularity of individual posts… so this was irresistible.

Most popular posts

Excluding the review index and review policy, which it turns out is frequently visited even if there’s little evidence it’s actually read.

Presumably by virtue of discussing both a novel found outside the genre shelves and a Christopher Nolan movie, my most popular post is the second edition of The Book Was Better (or was it). In a weird sort of reverse half-life, my discussion of The Prestige gets more views each year – nearly half its 800+ views have been this year, even though it’s over 3 years old.

The announcements for the past two years of Wyrd and Wonder come in second and third, which just goes to show that bookwyrms love the sound of event that will help them expand their bookhoards.

To round out the set is my delighted review of Melissa Caruso’s The Tethered Mage. This post stormed out of the gates as it got Redditted, where one reader promptly decided that my excitement about Amalia’s pockets made this book sound dull. Ah, blokes. You have no idea.

Most popular books

Switching from post views to search terms, it becomes obvious why The Prestige is so popular. It seems the world remains confused about various key plot points, and is keen to know about the differences between film and book. I had no idea I was performing a public service, but hey, you’re welcome.

However, it’s far from the most popular. It seems the book that brings most people to this opinionated corner of the bookwebs is Ellen Kushner’s classic Swordspoint – which just goes to show it’s never too late to be publicly excited about backlist books. This puts a huge smile on my face. I have very fond memories of livetweeting Swordspoint (and the sequels), which was a glorious rollercoaster and pivotal to building my friendship with Lisa, my partner in feelings-first reading and book-bloggish events. For which I am always happy to buy Ellen Kushner a cup of tea.

Most recent search terms

But what has brought people to the blog lately?

I am legend book sex

…erm, people? Are you okay? Or are you just worried about what your kids are reading? Yes, I wrote an extended post reviewing book and film. No, there’s no sex in either of them (although Robert Neville spends a worrying amount of time obsessing about not raping someone). Glad we cleared that up.

winnowing flame

That’s better! You’re the kind of visitor who’s welcome to pop by any time. Want to know why The Winnowing Flame series by Jen Willams deserves your eyeballs? Grab a seat, I can help you with that. Just looking for some reviews? Yep, got those too. There’s even an extended discussion of each book as part of our Wyrd and Wonder read-along last year (beware, spoilers).

Most frequent search terms

Swordspoint wins this hands-down (even more so if I consider other Riverside books or Tremontaine references in the same basket). But the second most frequent suite of search terms – in true internet fashion – are variations on the blog URL. This could be because the .org throws people off. It could be they aren’t actually looking for There’s Always Room For One More at all (1more is now apparently a headphone brand; and there’s a charity with a similar name) – so I take some comfort in the number of searches that include x+1 (yep, it me!). Welcome, friends.

Most satisfying search terms 

I’m obviously delighted that other people love The Prestige and Swordspoint as much as I do, but the search terms that make me absolutely glow are are awards subjective (they most certainly are around here) and what is a scifi mini con (a lockdown highlight). If these seekers weren’t expecting WiFi SciFi and the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, I hope they were won over by what they found here.

Search terms sure to leave the searcher disappointed

I’m not really sure what result persuaded someone to click through when they were seeking Helldivers VI review spoilers, but I certainly won’t have been able to help them with that. Is it a book? Is it a game? Who knows? Not me. I can offer neither review nor spoilers.

I’m both sneakily delighted and mildly ashamed that someone searched for -5(x+1) = -10. Yes, I could help you solve that equation, but my blog won’t. Sorry not sorry for the tongue in cheek representation of one more as x+1.

The less said about hiking clothes and pornx x ahem the better – can’t do much for you, sorry, which just leaves us with naked paul bettany. Honestly, what sort of blog do you think I’m running here?

…oh fine, fine. Maybe they didn’t leave completely disappointed after all.

This isn’t officially a blog tag, but if you decide to have a go, drop me a link!