The year in reviews at the complete review

       A closer look at the year that was will follow, eventually, but for now here an overview of 2013 at the complete review.

• 205 books were reviewed at the complete review -- well down (13%) from 2012, but pretty much exactly the (soft) target (200) set every year
  
  
• The reviews totaled 182,009 words -- the 888 words-per-review average an increase of almost 6% over the 2012 average
  
  
• Reviewed books were originally written in 35 different languages; stunningly (and it wasn't even close) English was not the most popular language.
  
  
• The top languages were:
  1. French 43 books
  2. English 35
  3. Japanese 19
  4. Spanish 16
  5. German 13
  6. Italian 10
  7. Russian 8
  8. Arabic 7
  
  
• Reviewed books were written by authors from 51 different nations; the leading ones were
  1. France 39 books
  2. Japan 20
  3. US 17
  4. Italy 10
  5. Spain 8
  
  
• The ridiculous sex-divide remains as steady as always: a stunning 85.37% of the reviewed titles (175) were authored by men
  
  
• As always, fiction dominates: 171 of the 205 reviewed titles were novels (161) or stories
  
  
• Two titles were awarded the grade "A" (Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq's Leg over Leg (I) and Pitigrilli's Cocaine), and for the first time ever a book was graded "F" (Pierre Michon's Rimbaud the Son)

       As far as the site itself goes:

• Traffic (both page-views and visitors) was disappointingly down 21.5% from 2012, the decline in the top markets ranging from -8.28% (India) to -18.49% (US) to -26.13% (UK) and -32.81% (Germany). Among top-50 markets the only country with an increase in traffic was from Nigeria (+1.28%)
  
  
• There were visits from 219 countries to the site in 2013; among the countries that had registered no visitors in 2012 but which did provide visitors in 2013 were: Kosovo, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Chad, San Marino, Palau, South Sudan, Saint Helena, Norfolk Island
  
  
• Outside the top 50 markets the biggest decline was in visitors from Mali (-71.76%), the biggest increase was in Niger (274.07%) (and, yes, there's presumably a correlation). Other sites with big changes in traffic include Côte d'Ivoire (+152.47%) and Palestine (+110.00%), as well as, predictably, Syria (-67.88%), and less predictably Aruba (-60.22%) and Paraguay (-58.44%)
  
  
• The top countries as far as visitors go were (percentage of all visitors):
  1. United States 40.45%
  2. United Kingdom 10.28%
  3. India 6.68%
  4. Canada 4.70%
  5. Australia 2.98%
  6. Germany 2.60%
  7. France 1.73%
  8. Philippines 1.69%
  9. Netherlands 1.69%
  10. Italy 1.30%
  
  
• The 490 (hard copy) review copies received in 2013 are a decline of over 15% compared to 2012. I did receive more 'e-book' review-copies than ever before, but I don't bother counting those; 8 of the 205 reviews in 2013 were based on e-book editions -- more than ever before -- but I still hate them hate them hate them.

       The decline in traffic to the complete review suggests things are not going particularly well; I'm a bit mystified by what is now looking like an inexorable decline, despite the addition of considerable material to the site, but since it's not really about the traffic I'm not all too bothered.