Happy 8th anniversary to 17th Street! The website went live on December 31st, 2005 with the intention of providing interested readers with everything they could ever want to know about Caleb Carr’s Alienist books in one place. Although the amount of time I’ve had to devote to 17th Street has waxed and waned over the years due to completing a doctoral degree and transitioning into full-time academic work, the release of The Legend of Broken late last year prompted me to find the time to rejuvenate the website properly in 2013 after taking an unintended sabbatical during a stressful 2012. Boy, am I glad that I did!
The past year has been the most enjoyable for me as owner in the website’s eight years. Thank you to visitors new and old for the feedback earlier in the year that has helped to reinvent the blog component of 17th Street. This year has seen five multi-part history blogs posted since mid-year, and this month has seen the instantiation of the new book blog feature. 2013 also brought all new maps of the Alienist book locations, new character profiles, Stevie Taggert finally got his own character analysis (!), and an entirely new section of the site was added for Caleb Carr’s non-Alienist books. We also took our first tentative steps into the social media world with a Twitter feed, a Tumblr account, and a few days ago we got a Google+ page. I also started publishing a new newsletter in the latter half of the year which gets sent out monthly to 60 visitors and is steadily growing. We also got a great new book from our author (okay, that was late 2012, but I’m counting it toward 2013), along with our first news from our author that a third Alienist book is planned for the future!
And for the curious among you, here are the top ten most frequently visited pages on the site throughout 2013:
10. Caleb Carr Press
9. Alienist Locations
8. Dr. Laszlo Kreizler
7. The Alienist Quiz
6. Caleb Carr Biography
5. Third Alienist Book
4. The Alienist Movie
3. The Alienist Summary
2. The Alienist Timeline
1. Full Alienist Character List
Have a wonderful and productive new year, everyone! I’m excited to see what 2014 brings.
Thank YOU, Kim, for continuing to come up with imaginative ways to celebrate two of our favorite books. With your contribution, the Alienist series has been a gift that keeps on giving!
The books have certainly been the gift that keeps on giving for me! They’ve led me to so many wonderful books, historical figures, and fields of interest that I might not have discovered without them. It looks like it’ll be continuing this year, too: I’ve never read ANY Wells, Verne, or any of the other early sci-fi writers before, but with the new book blog feature, I’ll finally be venturing into that genre; and reading through some of the synopses, it sounds like I’ll enjoy their work more than I’d thought I would. Should be fun!