#BookBlogWriMo Day 14: Your Ratings System

Day 14: Your Ratings System

A fun one today, but also one that is kind of hard for me to talk about. My rating system. How do I decide on how many stars to give a book? Well I am not sure really. I would say I don't really have a system, but of course I do. I just don't really know what makes me give one book a four star and another a 4.5. When finishing a book I just think this was like a 4.5 or whatever. I don't really think about it too much, it just is what it is. It is how much I enjoyed the book and that is what I give it. Maybe I can talk a little bit about what each star rating means to me. Let's try this out.

5 stars - I don't give out that many five star reviews. If you follow me you know this already. In order for a book to get a five star review from me it has to be pretty much the best book ever. There cannot be anything that I didn't like no matter how little. It has to just be an amazing book from start to finish. A book that just blows me away with how awesome it is. A book that I think everyone should read as it is just so awesome. I don't find these books very often, but when I do it is amazing. These are the books that stick with me forever and I re-read often. 

4.5 stars - This is a much more common rating for me. This is a book that is amazing, but there is something, no matter how slight, that keeps me from giving it five stars. Like the story was amazing, but at one point it just gets lost a bit, but then finds its way back to amazing or something. I don't know, I can't think of any good examples right now, but there is something that makes me hold back. I still love these book and highly recommend them, but they are not quite five stars for me. 

4 star - This is also a great book that I loved, but it has a slightly bigger issue than the 4.5 stars. There might be a character that I hated or something. Still loved the book, would definitely recommend it, but it is not perfect. Still a great read. 

3.5 stars - This is just a step up from 3 for me. Better than alright, but not amazing enough for a 4 star. Sometimes you just need a half. 

3 stars - These are books that are okay. I don't love them, but I don't hate them either. They were fine to read, maybe light, fun reads, but I will probably forget them quickly. They are just average for me and nothing special. 

2.5 stars - Again sometimes I just need a half. A step up from two, but not quite okay enough for three stars

2 stars - I didn't like the book. It is not the worst book I have ever read or anything, but it is not good either. The writing might be bad, or the story is just not good, or whatever. I didn't like it. Did not enjoy reading it and would not recommend it. 

1 star - I pretty much hated the book. Didn't like anything about it really and it was bad. Painful to read or just didn't finish (which is incredibly rare for me and I will have made it at least 50% of the way through). These are ones that make me angry when reading. Those books that I really really don't like and often rant to my husband about or type up an angry rant about as soon as I am finished. Though I guess they don't always make me angry, they could just be bad and painful to read. 1 star is never good. 

So there you have it. My rating system. It really is when I finish reading something I have a rating in mind. I don't think about it a lot, and even once I have slept on it it usually doesn't change. It is just my gut instinct for what I feel the book should be rated. Fun times.