Happy birthday to me

A Commonplace Blog is one year old. To be accurate, it was a year old on Tuesday. I can’t believe that I missed my own birthday! (“Do you always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it?” Daisy asks. “I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it.”) Too busy taking hammer and tongs to Beloved, I suppose, to break for the single-candled cake. Coincidentally, however, Tuesday was also the most heavily trafficked day in Commonplace history, as the New Yorker linked to my negative and fault-finding essay. The traffic fell off sharply as the magazine’s readers quickly got their fill of someone who places Lolita on top of the English-fiction heap and ranks Philip Roth ahead of Conrad and Faulkner.

I want to thank my loyal readers, who have stuck with me and taught me so much this past year, especially by opposing me. I am grateful as well to those who have installed A Commonplace Blog on several “best” lists. I only hope that I can be worthy of your trust, and their esteem, for at least another year.

Go, little blog!