Now that I’ve crossed six months of book blogging, I have to look back upon my method.
It’s difficult to assign a number to books. For one– my reviews are unbalanced.
I tend to stop reading and skip a review for the lukewarm books. I use reviews to process what I like, and so my average is a Four Star review.
What do the numbers even mean anyway?
On Amazon and Goodreads, you are required to give a book a rating out of 5 Stars.
Amazon:
1 Star- I Hate It
2 Star- I Don’t Like It
3 Star- It’s OK
4 Star- I Like It
5 Star- I Love It
Goodreads is a tad different:
1 Star- I Didn’t Like It
2 Star- It was OK
3 Star- I liked it
4 Star- I really liked it
5 Star- It was amazing
The problem seems to be the middle.
Amazon and Goodreads differ on what exactly the middle is.
For me lukewarm feelings should belong in the middle. My three stars got enough substance to keep me reading even if I feel conflicted.
But then, why would I need two different star categories to for the books I don’t finish?
In the past I’ve split Three Stars into 3 Stars, 3.5 Stars and 3.75 Stars.
This seems a little unnecessary. It’s also confusing because my qualifications for what goes where is from my gut, not an equation.
But OK books are different than Almost There books, and oooo Really Almost There books.
I might land a book in one category only to change it later as the number system changed. I also feel like how memorable a book is may change over time.
Forget the number system then–what I need are words. That’s where you come in.
Do you think the star system is a good guide? Should the categories on Goodreads or Amazon be used?
I’ve seen several great bookbloggers with visual images for their ratings. Once I have the words, it should be pretty easy to create some icons. Some books may need adjustments.
My idea for categories are:
This Makes Me Mad (zero stars)
Couldn’t Finish (one star)
OK (two star)
Good Potential (three stars)
Good (four stars)
Great (five stars)
This Touches My Soul (more than five stars)
