New Year and Ratings

Happy Year everyone! Well this year saw the debut of this blog four months ago and I have to say it's been a lot of fun so far. I haven't really done much beyond reviews, bestsellers, new releases and the occasional news bit, but I hope to change that this year. Hoping to try doing a little more and also trying to make what I'm already doing a little better.

One step toward that is finally coming up a formal rating system.

My Ratings System:
I rate books on a scale from 0 to 10. I include half of a point when I feel a book deserves somewhat higher than the base rating.

Special note: rating system is modified off one used by Racebannon of The Human Race.

0 : zero is so low I wouldn’t use the pages for toilet paper.

1 : is about as bad as it gets without being zero.

2 : very bad.

3 : is a bad book, but it probably has one or two redeeming qualities or was simply the victim of terrible editing.

4: below average.

5 : an average book. I probably enjoyed parts of it, but it’s probably nothing I'd ever pick up again nor recommend to anyone.

6 : a bit better than average, has several positive qualities.

7 : a good book, one I would recommend to people and that I might re-read in time.

8 : a very good book something that any serious fan of the genre should put on their to-read list. Must be very well written, enjoyable, or be in some way a groundbreaking work.

9 : a great book. One that people should read as soon as possible

10 : as good as it gets. I don't give out 10s too often.

Note that the ratings are entirely subjective, though I do try to be objective and take into account the level of writing or the quality of the ideas. Ultimately, the rating will depend on whether I enjoyed it, on my “gut feeling”.

You may notice that I don’t give out lots of low scores. I am fairly picky about the books I read so I usually only read the books that I think I will like or find interesting. If I don’t like a book I stop reading it. Consequently, I will almost never give out zeroes.

Also note that in putting some actual thought to the reasoning behind the numbers, I realized that I had been blurring some of the levels in the mid-upper range. Ratings will be considered far more carefully and future books may be given a different value than comparable books were given previously.