{"id":43518,"date":"2025-12-29T19:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=43518"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:04:14","slug":"the-10-most-read-posts-of-2025-sort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/12\/29\/the-10-most-read-posts-of-2025-sort-of\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Most-Read Posts of 2025 &#8212; Sort Of! :-)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yep, back from my Christmas mini-break with family and back into it, although I will confess to finding it a tad hard to refind the writing momentum with so many others on holiday around me. Oi! &amp; ack! &amp; all the other attendant exclamations. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37372\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37372\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37372\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Crimson_for-1-1-2020.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Crimson_for-1-1-2020.jpg 150w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Crimson_for-1-1-2020-113x150.jpg 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37372\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NZ&#8217;s &#8216;tree-of-summer&#8217; &#8211; Pohutakawa flower close-up<\/p><\/div>\n<p>However, having been through this many times before, I know what to do, Chiefly, set the routine and stick with it, rinseing and repeating until refocus is achieved. Plus closing the door and using headphones as required!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_33978\" style=\"width: 246px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33978\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-33978\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/goneWriting_1-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/goneWriting_1-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/goneWriting_1-118x150.jpg 118w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/goneWriting_1.jpg 256w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-33978\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Y&#8217;know what the closed shutters mean&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In terms of blog routine, this is the time when I list my Top 10 posts for the year that&#8217;s ending &#8212; but I&#8217;m going to have to do things a bit differently this year, because when I compiled my list it was Really Very Clear what readers and followers are interested in. \ud83d\ude09 Namely, book progress updates!<\/p>\n<p>Although I have known this for some time, the fact they&#8217;ve been coming thick and fast from mid year(ish) means that the Top 10 basically consists of most (if not all) the updates, plus one <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/10\/30\/inside-the-revision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Inside the Revision&#8221; post<\/a> (with a couple more of the same just below the cut-off.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3444\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3444\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3444\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/WALL2-MS-001-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/WALL2-MS-001-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/WALL2-MS-001-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/WALL2-MS-001-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3444\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not *quite* this much left to go&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So I have decided <em>not<\/em> to list out all the updates again, particularly as the five most significant precursors are listed in the latest update, on <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/12\/22\/work-in-progress-update-section-5-of-part-2-of-the-wall-finale-done\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I shall, however, give the one outlier in this array of book updates a shoutout. The ninth most-read post of 2025 on <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>&#8220;&#8230;Anything, Really&#8221;<\/em><\/a>, posted on march 14, was (ta-da!):<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/03\/14\/gorgeous-words-from-charles-dickens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gorgeous Words from Charles Dickens<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-43521\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-668x1024.jpg 668w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-98x150.jpg 98w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-768x1178.jpg 768w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-1001x1536.jpg 1001w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1-1335x2048.jpg 1335w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations_Movie-Tie-In-1.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They really are gorgeous, too, so I&#8217;m going to post them again, just for your delectation*:<\/p>\n<h3>\u201cIt was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>~ from <em>Great Expectations\u00a0<\/em>(1861)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-43522 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations-1998-Original-US-One-Sheet-Poster-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"1998 Film \" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations-1998-Original-US-One-Sheet-Poster-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations-1998-Original-US-One-Sheet-Poster-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations-1998-Original-US-One-Sheet-Poster-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations-1998-Original-US-One-Sheet-Poster-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Expectations-1998-Original-US-One-Sheet-Poster.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>* &#8220;I know&#8221;, I <em>could<\/em> just have written,\u00a0 &#8220;your enjoyment&#8221;, or &#8220;your reading pleasure&#8221;, but I think &#8220;delectation&#8221; is a gorgeous word in its own right and deserves a little bloggish time in the sun. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yep, back from my Christmas mini-break with family and back into it, although I will confess to finding it a tad hard to refind the writing momentum with so many others on holiday around me. Oi! &amp; ack! &amp; all the other attendant exclamations. \ud83d\ude00 However, having been through this many times before, I know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bestof-on-anythingreally","category-most-read-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43524,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518\/revisions\/43524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}