On this lovely day, I'm going to explain how I rate books. (I thought it might come in handy with the Book Reviews section.) By the way, because of Goodreads, I use a five-star rating system. Why am I posting about this? Isn't it just five stars is best and one star is worst? Well, yes, but you might get a clearer idea if I just explain it all to you.
Five Stars
I only give five-star ratings to the absolute best books in the world. (And, obviously, my favorite books.) These books are so brilliantly done, so wonderfully flawless, and have such amazing characters that the book comes to life. You wish more than anything you weren't done with the book, that you could just live in the book, and you go around so happily and so joyfully you might just look a little crazy to everyone else. And you can't stop obsessing about your book, so you just carry it around and still live in the book world even though you really should be living in the real world again.
Four Stars
A four-star rating is a wonderful book. These books I enjoy thoroughly and look forward to the next installment. I love these books, just not as much as five-star books.
Three Stars
Three-star books are okay. They're not terrible; they're more meh. They may have had horrible grammar/word usage, a weak plot, characters that were difficult to relate to, unlikable characters, a too-sad ending. . .etc. However, the initial concept was interesting, and I would have liked the book if the author fixed the previously-mentioned problems. These books are still disappointing, though.
Two Stars
These books were awful books. Crappy books. This could be for a variety of reasons. For example, I once read a book that was mislabeled horribly. The back of the book described it as a mystery with a hint of romance. Instead, it was a horror-ish story about some characters preoccupied with falling in love and had messed up character shifts and morals. Because I do not like the horror-ish-love-messed-up morals genre, I did not enjoy the book. Another book had the worst grammar and word usage. The narrator said the same thing about three times whenever they said anything, and said it poorly all three times. I would give a book two stars for this type of reason.
One Star
Simply put,
these books should not exist. They do not deserve to exist. These
books have terrible endings, leaving the reader full of misery. The
miserable feeling that nothing matters, that all you did for these
characters is worthless. They have dashed your dreams. Your hopes.
Your esteem for and love of the characters. I hate misery. Maybe I am
an anomaly, but I read for enjoyment. For fun. Yes, I know that bad
things happen in real life. That is precisely why I read. Because, no
matter how bad it gets in a book, you know it will get better. I do
not read to learn about other people's issues, and consequently be
sad about my issues and their
issues. That just compounds my sad feelings. I know some people read
sad books when they're sad to know they're not alone. I understand
that logically, but I am not one of those people. Therefore, I do not
like miserable books. There are only two books I have read that I
have rated as one star. I'm not going to tell you what they are,
because I do not want you to be offended or upset.
I'm sorry about kind of ranting a little bit, but here's how I rate
books. How do you rate books?
And, yes, if you're not a reader, it is very probable you will think I've gone horribly crazy.
Spruce Nogard
*Post actually written on July 2nd. See here for details.
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