Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
How I wonder, what you are.
Is your worth important to
Authors in a book review?
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
How I wonder, what you are.
I've got quite a stack of books I need to read for book reviews over the next few months and, while it seems customary to give them some kind of star value, I wonder what each star means and how many to give each book. In the past, I've thought that if I totally enjoyed the book and it held my interest to the very end, putting a smile on my face or leaving me in tears when I turned the last page, that it was a 5 star book. But because I'm a writer and spend a great deal of my time studying the craft and paying if forward by critiquing others' manuscripts, I find my standards are changing. It's all I can do NOT to bring my little red pen along when I'm reading. In fact, there have been a couple books where I've wanted to write the author and tell them everything they could have done better. Not that I'm a better writer than they are, not hardly. They're the ones with the agent, after all. But because I have a fresh eye and have nothing but my time--and perhaps the cost of the book--at risk.
So, for all those out there who do book reviews and give a star rating, how do you judge a book? And what exactly does a book have to have in order to gain a 5 star rating from you?
I'm interested to read what others say about this. I generally disregard star ratings for movies (I'm not a movie goer in general, so I'm not too picky and a lot of the time I disagree with the number of stars given). Now, star ratings for book reviews from this group I would regard. I say 'this group' because I think we have shared values and, we're writers - which, like you said, gives you an entirely different perspective. :-)
ReplyDeleteFunny you should ask. I've been thinking if I want to do book reviews this upcoming year. I came across this book review blog recently and she uses a star system I think is pretty cool. Is it okay to copy someone's system? Actually, I think she uses hearts. Very cute. http://themindfulmusingsbookblog.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThere are times when I do email the author and let them know about errors--grammatical--that I find in the novel!
ReplyDeletethe stars mean much less to me than the actual review. that's how I'm able to tell if the reader is coming from where I'm coming from.
For about five minutes, when I first started my blog, I was going to be a reviewer too. I love cupcakes, so I was going to pass them out instead of stars. LOL. Anyway, I put the kabosh on that (except Heather because I'd already promised).
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's did I love it? When I was done, was I kind of empty? Sad even? Missing the world the writer had created for me? I tell you, I give Steph Meyer a hard time about her H and D swear words (ask me about it some other time) but her books, JK Rowling and Mr. Dumas are the ONLY books I've ever read more than once.
Those authors create such captivating worlds, but more than that, they make them easy to enter. And once inside, I find myself connected, engaged-- it's all I can do to break away to take care of my family. Hee hee.
After a lot of thought about how I should rate books on Goodreads, I came to a personal decision to rate them against other books I've read in the same or similar genre, rather than against all the books I've ever read. For example, a Georgette Heyer romance may not be the equivalent of a Classic like The Count of Monte Cristo, but I consider most of her books to "classics" of the Regency genre, so I tend to rate other Regencies I read against hers. I'll rate LDS books against other LDS books I've read, rather than against, let's say, Jane Austen. Some of Diana Wynne Jones' YA fantasy books are among my very favorite fantasies, so I will tend to rate other YA fantasies against those favorites. That's just my personal rating system. But mostly, I hate rating books at all, because ratings are completely subjective and what one person hates, another will love, and who am I to tell them what they should love or hate?
ReplyDeleteThat's why I don't do too many book reviews on my blog.
I think you're just going to have to go with your gut, but it might help to post a rubric that lets readers know why you gave a book the rating you did.
ReplyDelete