Your intrepid blogger on the occasion of her first birthday. So intent!
Today marks the first anniversary of the Radish! I honestly wasn’t sure I had enough to say about books and other issues to keep going for an entire year, but apparently I do!
Anyhow, to mark the occasion, I thought I’d list all my favorite posts from the last year.
- Donna’s review of Iain M. Bank’s final novel, The Hydrogen Sonata.
- In which I declare that Reviews are for Readers.
- W.B. Yeats, Nice Guy–or should that be creeper?
- Donna’s discussion of literature between the two world wars.
- Where I lose my shit over Heinlein’s final novel, To Sail Beyond the Sunset. I may also have recently committed truly terrible fan fiction about his bed.
- A Defense of Moby-Dick, wherein Donna professes her eternal love for the white whale.
- Happy flailing about Sunny Moraine and Lisa Soem’s Line and Orbit. So much so that I wrote a second post about it.
- Donna’s review of Connie Willis’s Fire Watch
- Jessica’s round up of all the different opinions about Anna Cowan’s Untamed.
- Colorlessblue’s post about the effect that unthinking racism and the fetishization of WOC sexuality had on her as she read Julie Ann Long’s Like No Other Lover.
- Wherein I go on and on and on about Courtney Milan’s The Heiress Effect.
And then, of course, there were all the posts I made that were, in one way or another yelling at people for all sorts of nonsense around sexism, racism, and people behaving badly in public. So I made a category just for them–behold, the Ranty Radish!
And since I was curious and stuck at work installing a ginormous piece of software, I decided to count how many total links there have been in linkspam.
That number would be 1,401. The least was 8 and the most–not counting weeks where there were two linkspam posts–was last week at 54. If we count the two double-linkspam weeks, then the number is 88. The average number of links per linkspam is 26.
Total number of posts is 226 and we’re holding steady at around 1,231 comments. Akismet has prevented 32,178 spam comments from going through.
But more important than all of those numbers are the wonderful people I’ve met over the last year. I really enjoy belonging to part of a wider community of readers and writers and fans and I’m beyond grateful that you’ve all been so welcoming. Thank you.
And now, it’s time for cake!
This is a cake version of the very first computer we ever had (made out of computer parts, not cake–but cake-powered computer would be awesome, someone get on that). The occasion was my dad’s retirement from the US Navy, hence the message on the screen.
Brie says
September 10, 2013 at 8:36 amCake!
I can’t believe it’s been a year. Here’s to many more 😉 I should say something heartfelt, but the thoughts of things made of cake is distracting me, so I’m off to eat something.
Cake!
Jessica says
September 10, 2013 at 8:55 amCongratulations! Wow, that went fast. As you know, I love the Radish, love the links posts and your strong intelligent voice on so many issues that matter in book land. Thank you for allowing me to contribute, and may you have many more years of terrific posts and discussion.
victoriajanssen says
September 10, 2013 at 9:07 amHappy Birthday! Or Anniversary! May there be many more!
Fran W says
September 10, 2013 at 9:14 amCongratulations! I remember when you were just a wee radish, obsessed with grasping the flame… Or was that yesterday?
Emma says
September 10, 2013 at 11:31 amHappy happy birthday!
DameB says
September 10, 2013 at 11:55 amDelurking from many months of reading to say how much I enjoy your site. It’s been consistently one of the most interesting reads in my morning feed and I’ve recommended you to all my friends. *Especially* your ranty bits. It’s usually the most thoughtful stuff I read in a big pile of thoughtful stuff.
slhuang says
September 10, 2013 at 12:33 pmYaaaaaaaay!!!!! CAAAAAAAKE!
Congrats on turning 1!
Ros says
September 10, 2013 at 5:04 pmI missed the Untamed post before. That is brilliant! There’s a whole blog to be had in reviewing the reviews.
Marilyn says
September 10, 2013 at 6:13 pmHappy day to you! This is quite an achievement. It’s no small thing to come up with fresh ideas on a regular basis.
I enjoy reading your blog. I love the links – they keep me going all weekend sometimes. I enjoy also the way you approach issues, with erudition satisfying to the specialists, but without losing the generalists and chemistry majors like me.
Many more, Natalie! Many more!
Marilyn
Barb in Maryland says
September 10, 2013 at 8:52 pmW00t!! One year and I do believe I have read all of the entries. I really enjoy the links–thank you for all the hard work that goes into get all that info to us.
And your reviews and Ranty Rants are wonderful—don’t stop! please!!
The picture is just precious. Cake!!!!! BTW, the computer cake is too cool and absolutely fabulous and also—CAKE!!!
Now, where’s the ice cream???
Merrian says
September 10, 2013 at 9:24 pmSo happy to have made your acquaintance and to be a radish-rant’s reader. Congratulations 🙂 I am looking forward to many years more of chatting and reading with you Natalie.
Natalie Luhrs says
September 10, 2013 at 9:36 pmEveryone, thank you so much for the kind comments. This has been a challenging and upsetting week at the dayjob, so it was extra-nice to get these over the course of the day.
Kaetrin says
September 11, 2013 at 4:36 amHappy blog birthday Natalie! 🙂
Kari Sperring says
September 11, 2013 at 7:17 amHappy Birthday!
Have I said thank you recently for running this blog? THANK YOU!
pamela1740 says
September 13, 2013 at 8:20 amSometimes your blog, and your tweet-y encouragement, is what keeps me from throwing in the towel on this whole romance review/blogging thing…. somehow your posts always hook and haul me back in to a place where I realize I actually do have more I want to say/read/write (or rant)! Pretty amazing work you are doing here, to create this space and community in one short year. Congratulations!
A.C. Wise says
September 13, 2013 at 10:33 amSlightly belated, but Happy Radish-a-versary nonetheless! May I suggest a non-radish flavored cake? Perhaps chocolate with radish rosettes.