Do you give the books you read final numerical ratings? I do and I can understand why some people do not. It is difficult to quantify and sum up how you feel about a text using the Likert scale. Reading a book is such a subjective experience - what one reader loves, another may loathe.
I prefer to numerically rate what I read because I’m a person that likes things to be concrete - lists and scores help me to order and make sense of the things around me. Even though I consider myself to be a creative and even artistic person, which requires quite a bit of free-following, whimsical thought, I also like things to be logical and to the point (Hi. I’m a creature of dichotomies). I use scales and lists to help ground the creativity in my life, or else I’ll be all over the place. Having ratings attached to the books I read also helps me when I look back over what I’ve read over the year, to determine my top reads.
Overall, I generally like what I choose to read - my average score for book is 4/5. I attribute this to being extremely self-aware and knowing what I like and don’t like. Here, I have five books with some explanations of how I rate what I read and what the numbers mean to me.
5 Stars: Unparalleled. Jane Eyre is my favorite book. For a book to garner a 5/5 rating, it has to completely blow me away. After I’ve put it down, I need to get back to it. It lingers in my thoughts not just for a few days after I’ve, finished, but for weeks, months, years. These are the books with superior writing styles, unforgettable characters and unique plots. There’s something that gets under my skin won’t release me and these are the books that I’m always eager to reread. Other 5 star reads for me are: The Brothers Karamazov, Stoner, Cold Mountain.
4 Stars: Exceptional. A 4 star book for me has many of the characteristics of a 5 star read, but there maybe something a bit “rough” around the edges for me. There may be some aspects of the book that I may not be keen on, such as the plot may drag a bit, some of the characters may fall a little flat for me, but the writing is still really, really good, or even great. Often, on rereads, a 4 star may become a 5 star. Again, a lot of this is subject to me as a reader and what I prefer. There just something there that isn’t pushing to the top for me. Other 4 star reads for me are: David Copperfield, Lolita, Outline.
3 Stars: “It’s ok. It’s Good.” I think when a book receives a 3 star rating, people automatically assume the book was not good, or that the reader didn’t enjoy it at all. For me, a 3 is still a decent score. I enjoyed the book enough to keep picking it up, but it may not be the most memorable. I enjoyed it while I read it, it was a nice palette cleanser, it was fun, it was quick, it served its purpose, but it’s not lingering with me. Something just didn’t fully “click,” or there were elements that may have annoyed me, or perhaps the book ended up being something different than what I expected, but I still found something enjoyable that held my interest, or perhaps the book was a bit confusing to me and that jarred my reading experience a bit. With some of my 3 star reads, there may be something bit more cliche with the writing, characters or the plot, however that doesn’t mean I won’t reread it at a later time. Other 3 star reads for me: Hamnet, Frankenstein, Great Expectations.
2 Stars: “Nope. Didn’t like it.” For me a 2 star rating is pretty bad, however there may have been a few elements of the book that I liked. Usually with a 2 star, the book really got on my nerves, I didn’t like the writing, it’s cliche, the characters were irritating, the writing was just not good at all, or there were even editing errors in the text. For example, I can’t stand The Cather in the Rye. Ugh. It was so annoying to me. However, there were a few moments that actually made me laugh, so that was it’s saving grace from it being a 1 star. Another book that I dislike quite a bit is The Nightingale. The writing was cliche, the characters cliche, there were elements that were so inaccurate that it jarred me out of the story. There were actually so many grammatical errors that I just didn’t understand how the editor did not make those corrections. Actually the majority of the annotations I made in that book were grammatical edits. The reason why that book didn’t receive a 1 star rating was because I was interested to see what would happen to some of the characters. My only other 2 star rating: Longbourn. Sorry, but Jane Austen would be rolling around in her grave…
1 Star: Hated it! I don’t think this needs an explanation. Take all of the elements of a 2 star rating, but it has not even one saving grace for me. The only book that comes to mind that I hated was Breaking Dawn LOL! I read it in high school and couldn’t even finished it. Everything about that book is infuriating to me - the plot, the characters, and its riddled with so many editing and printing errors that 18 year old Alana was LIVID! Seriously, the worst book I’ve ever read.
Now, I do give books half star ratings - for example The Wedding is a 3.5 star read for me. It has excellent writing and the narrative is interesting and thought provoking. Somehow, it just wasn’t what I expected it to be and something held me back from the 4 star that I just can’t put my finger on. However, it’s a book I would wholeheartedly recommend. Using the half stars allows me to be a bit more gracious with my ratings, because some books for me as almost there and a lower score would do it a disservice.
I will also change ratings for books - this is why I like rereading. Sometimes you read a book and it just wasn’t the book for that time in your life, but reading it at a later time, something clicks. Stoner is a good example. When I first read it in 2014, it was just “okay” and I would have given a 3 star rating, but when I read it again this year, it blew me away and it’s now one of my favorites. It’s ok to change your mind - these are subjective ratings, based entirely on the preferences and often “gut feelings” of how one nuanced reader feels about a book. A 1 star read for one person is a 5 star read for another. So, take every review and rating with a grain of salt. This is just my process of how I rate what I read. One thing I try to do is to assess each book independently and try not to compare them because, how can I compare Jane Eyre to Hamnet. Jane Eyre is Jane Eyre. Hamnet is Hamnet. They aren’t remotely similar, they are accomplishing different things, etc. I think about the book I’m reading and base my rating based on how I felt about that book and that book only.
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