Here is mine (for fiction):
1 star - truly terrible, little or no merits. not even so bad its good kind of bad. Will most likely drop the book. Whether we should even rate books we haven’t finished is another discussion. However, I am of the believe if a book has nothing going for it even though you’ve read 100 pages, it’s probably a 1 star.
2 star - it was ok. Enjoyed bits here and there. It did not feel like a waste of time, but would not read again.
3 star - this one is hard to define. it was better than ok, but not great. would probably not reread, but fairly enjoyed.
4 star - very enjoyable, would not mind rereading. maybe there were a few flaws here and there, but nothing detrimental.
5 star - this book made me think about it for days, weeks, maybe even months. I care about the characters like they’re my own family. I would want to reread it again and again. Although, there are some books I would not want to reread, maybe because it dealt with dark or violent topics, but I would still rate 5 star because of the impact it had on me. Did the book change me, did it make me want to reread it, those are pretty good criteria for me to see if the book deserves 5 stars.
Note, I have never really rated books until recently. I realize it helps me reflect on how I feel about the book, and helps me get closure and move on to the next book without any unnecessary lingering attachment. Unless its a 5 star of course, then I’ll think about it forever, haha. I don’t even have a goodreads or do reviews or any of that jazz, just thought it would be fun to discuss.
Since you typically can’t rate 0:
- Unreadable
- Acceptable
- Average
- Good
- Great
-
Don’t waste your time
-
It’s bad, but it gets the job done
-
Mediocrity
-
Good, but has issues
-
Worth as read
In a way 3 is the worst.
-
- so bad i got angry
- mediocre; waste of time
- it’s a good book
- it’s a great book
- it changed the way i think/act/feel
I like to think of it as, if I was forced at gunpoint to reread this book, how angry would I be that I have to reread the book or I get killed?
5 - easy. Liked the book, easy reread. Having my life threatened is a great excuse to reread it.
4 - Still okay. It might take a while, but fine.
And of course 1 is essentially “I might actually prefer the bullet to rereading this book.”
The less gruesome scale is
5 - Great book. No notes.
4 - Good book. Some notes.
3 - Okay book. Several notes.
2 - Bad book. Many notes. Probably did not finish it.
1 - Awful book. Tons of notes. Probably did not finish. Would recommend this book for crafting purposes only.
Offhand I can’t think of anything I’ve read I would give 1 star. Even stuff I didn’t finish I’ve given 2 stars.
5 star: perfection, wouldn’t change a thing, can’t wait to tell everyone about
4 stars: liked it a lot
3 stars: it was average/ok/alright
2 stars: did not like it/not enjoyable, forced myself to finish
1 star: hate it, scourge on the face of the earth, who green lit this garbage?
I review about 80+ books a year on my blog and social media (I read more but only write reviews for the copies the publishers send me) and I’d say most books fall in the 3.5-4.5 range for me.
1 - hate it
2 - wasn’t for me
3 - fine
4 - good to great
5 - one of my favorite books
1 - hate it
2 - it was ok
3 - average to slightly above average
4 - really good book
5 - one of my favouritesYour description of 3 stars I would sum up with the words good or fine.
Depends on what chocolate that would go good. Fiction bookss get chocolate
Ordinary stuff like Reeses, those would be good for dime novel romances.
Dove chocolate mid range.
Godiva’s that is the upper level books.
Non-fiction a plate of nibbles like Viking sushi(Herring on Ritz), summer sausage, medium cheddar. etc… I’m there to do study.
I don’t really use a rating system or try to break down the mechanics of it. I USED to do that, but I found there are just too many unclassifiable books out there that can’t be graded along a curve that I still greatly enjoy. Sometimes I can really like a book even if it fails on several technical categories and sometimes I can dislike a book that is really actually well put together.
So I just go on a case by case basis.
1 - didn’t like it 2 - it was okay 3 - liked it 4 - really liked it 5 - loved it, amazing
5 - Excellent
4 - Great
3 - Good
2 - Bad
1 - Awful
1 - Not good at all
2 - I feel bad for giving one star so this one.
3 - Okay okay. won’t re-read it.
4- Good but don’t like some elements like endings, grammar etc.
5 - I like it… would re-read it again in the future.
- A book that fails to interest me from the get go. The one I have no desire to read.
- A book I start to read but never finish. A disappointment.
- A book I read once.
- A book I read once, and think and talk about it.
- A book I read multiple times, and it never fails to entertain me. The one that deserves to be crammed on the small shelf beneath my nightstand. Slowly growing pile of life worth re-living.
So glad to see people using 5s. I hate those who say “I never give 5”