2009 Blog Year in Review ... and What's Ahead For 2010

I posted at Beliefnet and T&S for most of the year, so the 16 posts in my Greatest Hits 09 list (about seven clicks down the right sidebar) are from all over: ten from T&S, four from Beliefnet, and two originally posted here at DMI. [Note: I have archived most of my posts from other sites here at DMI, so all the sidebar links are to the DMI version of the post.]

Of the T&S posts on the list, my favorite is probably God and Robots. It's a light-hearted piece, but it helps us remember the impact that technology has on our religious practice. Think of changes in just the last twenty years: LDS.org, Conference via the Internet, scriptures on your iPhone, blogging, missionaries with cell phones, LDS genealogy records accessible online.

Of the Beliefnet posts, I like Mormons and Restorationists and Quakers, Shakers, and Mormons, two posts discussing material in E. Brooks Holifield's book Theology in America. That book is a great tool for trying to get a sense of how early Mormon doctrine follows or contrasts with the doctrines of other contemporary denominations.

I did a couple of nice series that don't appear in that Greatest Hits 09 list. Here at DMI, I did two posts (here and here) discussing essays from the book Joseph Smith, Jr.: Reappraisals After Two Centuries. I think it is a fine book that didn't generate a lot of attention when it was published last year.

Then there were three posts at Times and Seasons on Glen Leonard's Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise, which I subtitled Founding, Flourishing, and Polygamy. I was originally planning a Part 3 titled "Fighting" and a Part 4 titled "Fleeing," but I figured polygamy was the real focus of interest for most readers. I guess I could have titled Part 3 "Females," but that would have been stretching a little too far just to keep an F-word in the title.

What lies ahead for 2010? I'm presently reading All Abraham's Children, which should generate some interesting posts. Grant Hardy's commentary on the Book of Mormon will be published by Oxford University Press later this year. Ron Walker supposedly has a biography of Brigham Young coming out sometime. Any other books on the horizon?

As for DMI and blogging, T&S offers a lot more traffic and comments, so that's generally the first option for where I post unless, for one reason or another, the post doesn't really fit at T&S. I liked how my "You Make the Call" post turned out -- I'd like to make that a recurring DMI feature. As an aside, I'd have to say that comments just aren't the same in 2010 (at any LDS blog) as they were a few years ago. Consequently, I'm a lot less concerned with comments at DMI now — I post what I want to put in print without much concern for whether there will be any discussion in the comments. I maintain the many book thumbnails in the left sidebar and extensive lists in the right sidebar mostly for my own convenience in finding things I want to be able to find.

So how does everyone else feel about blogging in 2010, here or anywhere else?

Comments

[J. Stapley]

There are also BY bios forthcoming by John Turner, Tom Alexander, and Will Bagley. Alexander's is apparently a shorter bio based on secondary literature. I can only imagine what Bagley's will be like. John's is spectacular and will be the bio of choice. I doubt any of them will be out this year.

I'm looking forward to JSPP H1 this year, which includes not only the early Smith history, but also the Book of John Whitmer and the Corrill history.

Taysom has his book with Indiana UP forthcoming in the fall, which will be great.

Mark Staker's book looks extraordinary (hopefully in the next four weeks!).

[Jared*]

"I'm a lot less concerned with comments..."

I had to make that my philosophy early on. I love it when people are interested enough to comment, but it's clear that most readers are lurkers. Moreover, I am usually a lurker on a dozen or so blogs, but I still appreciate them.

Keep up the good work!

[Dave]

Thanks, J. -- I forgot about the Staker book that everyone is drooling over: Hearken O Ye People: The Historical Setting for Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations. Here's the author's website for the book:

http://hearkenoyepeople.blogspot.com/2009/11/overview-of-hearken_18.html

Is Kofford the publisher? That's what Amazon reports, but the Kofford Books website (at least the one I found at http://www.koffordbooks.com) hasn't been updated in a while, so it's hard to tell what they are publishing at this point.

[Ben]

Dave: Kofford is the publisher. Here is their new website: http://www.gregkofford.com/

[Clean Cut]

Okay, sincere question: Which one of these forthcoming Brigham Young bio's will be the equivalent of Bushman's "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling"? Anyone?