Nine Years of Blogging

This month marks the ninth anni­versary of “Derrick’s Blog”. I began writing it in August 2009, and in the nine years since, not a month has passed without my adding at least one new post. When I began writing it, I had no idea how many people would read it. I just wanted to share my love of music – and selected books and movies – with as many people as I could. I’ve also published a few concert reviews and interviews over the years, categories I didn’t envision at the outset.

Nine years, 150 posts, and 100,000 words later, there have been more than 144,000 hits on my blog. The most popular post of all time has been Valentina Lisitsa: Four Encores with over 9,000 views. Next in line are My Interview with Lola Astanova and Anna Netrebko: Three Encores. The picture changes somewhat if we look at just the past 12 months, during which my interview with Lola Astanova takes over first place with more than 3,000 views, followed by Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and my review of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.

I’m especially pleased with how many countries have viewed my blog, 176 as of this writing. The country with the most views is, not surprisingly, the United States with more than 36,000. Germany, United Kingdom, France, and Canada round out the top five. At the bottom of the list, there are 22 countries with one view each, including Iran, Afghanistan, and – who would have guessed it – Vatican City.

At this point, I’m planning on taking a break from this blog and starting a new one, which should debut in a month or two. I have no doubt that I will return to “Derrick’s Blog” from time to time to write about other books, movies, and music that I’m excited about. In the meantime, I encourage you, dear reader, to scroll to the top of this screen and click on the link to the Table of Contents for a complete listing of all my posts to date. Below that you will find a link to My Heart Still Hears, where you will find my complete haiku. I hope you find one or two that appeal to you.

Soon there will be a link to a new blog as well. I hope you will take a look at that too.

Derrick Robinson