Thursday, September 26, 2013

My Rating System

It's probably time to discuss my rating system. I use the traditional five star system. The problem with that is that one person's four stars could be another person's three stars. I happen to think three star is pretty good while some readers would dismiss those books. So here is one of my explanations for my general ratings for fiction and non-fiction...

5 stars - A must read
4 stars - I really, really like it!
3 stars - Liked it but with reservations
2 stars - Meh!
1 stars - Runaway! Run Away!

For fiction, I have a variation based on my quest to find the perfect novel. Just how close to a perfect novel is this work of fiction? No novel is 100 percent.  But I can adjust my rating to give you an idea of the book's claims to perfection.

5 stars - 99 to 90% perfect
4 stars - 89 to 75% perfect
3 stars - 74 to 50% perfect
2-stars - 49 to 25% perfect
1 stars - 24 to 01% perfect

That should give you a good idea how I rate. Therefore 5 to 3 stars is worth your time while 2 to 1..not so much. I try to read books that I think will be worthwhile and I try to stay in my preferred genres. In other words, you won't see any romance novels reviewed here but plenty of horror, suspense, science fiction, mysteries, humor, literary fiction and some non-fiction. I do not start out by intentionally reading bad books. I don't have the time . But I may occasionally review a popular book that I consider over-hyped or controversial  just to voice my concerns.  But I also like to jump feet first into the works of new and interesting writers, especially the indie types, so I never know how that will turn out.

With that, I'm off to some reading. I appreciate any feedback.


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