One day away from the end of 2010, I went looking through the statistics software that runs behind-the-scenes at my web site to see which articles were the most popular. And just for your amusement I thought I’d share them with you.
Two observations: first, it was a little surprising to me how many of them were written prior to 2010–so some of the most popular articles were ones I wrote as far back as 2006. And second, it’s notable how many of the most popular articles are book reviews–fully half of them.
So here they are, the top ten articles from 2010.
10. A New Kind of Christianity – This was my review of Brian McLaren’s latest book. Quite needless to say, I wasn’t a big fan of it.
9. Black Friday & Cyber Monday – Rather on a whim I decided to create a post that would offer a round-up of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that might interest my readers. It was popular enough that I think I’ll turn it into an annual feature.
8. Crazy Love – Francis Chan’s book seems to be picking up steam as time goes on, which meant that more and more people were looking for a review of it.
7. Joel Osteen or Fortune Cookie – I had some fun in this post, comparing the wisdom of fortune cookies with the wisdom of Joel Osteen.
6. 90 Minutes in Heaven – This book review has made the top-ten list since 2006. It’s an awful book but one that people just keep buying and believing.
5. The Secret – This book review has been in the top-ten posts of the year since 2007. I believe it remains strong in part, at least, because the author brought out her latest piece of junk book in 2010.
4. I Looked for Love in Your Eyes – This is a poem anonymously shared by a reader of this site and it went viral very quickly. Considering it was posted just a couple of weeks ago, it’s remarkable how many times it was read.
3. Sexual Detox: The E-Book – Sexual Detox
2. Why John Piper Should Not Have Invited Rick Warren – When John Piper asked Rick Warren to be a speaker at Desiring God’s national conference I wrote an article expressing my concern.
1. A Review of The Shack – There are actually several pages related to The Shack that rate among the top pages of the year. Combine them all and they are many multiples higher than any other page on the site. They were also the top pages from 2009. While The Shack’s popularity has crested, it still remains a popular and controversial book.
