I developed the following scorecard for rating books. I did this because there have been many books that I enjoyed but didn’t think they were good, and viceversa. I wanted to come up with a more objective way of measuring books. Obviously, the criteria will probably vary person by person, and these ones are solely based on what I think is important in a book reading experience.
Criteria:
1) Plot makes sense, no major contradictions or plot holes, story is original and/or interesting
2) Storytelling (style, voice, narration, dialogue, etc.) is appropriate and powerful
3) Characters are layered and developed
4) Learnt something new or made a significant impact in my life
5) Entertainment value (aka enjoyment, binge qualities)
6) Wow factor
Marking system:
5-star: 6 of the criteria
4-star: 4-5 of the criteria
3-star: 3-4 of the criteria
2-star: 2 of the criteria
1-star: 0-1 of the criteria
I’m still not sure that I care about believability. For example, the dog thing in Lessons in Chemistry bothered me a lot, but then again I grew up in Latin America where some of the best authors belong to the realismo mágico (magical realism) genre. For example, Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez. So I’m still on the fence about whether believability and realism actually matter to me.
What is your criteria? Or how do you rate books?
by Difficult_Swing_5112
10 Comments
I go by a couple of things- not a whole lot because I generally am just looking to have a good time:
1) Overall reading experience. Was I super engaged the whole time? Were there points I wanted to DNF? Or was it somewhere in between?
2) Plot.
3) Prose – did I enjoy it or was it a drag?
4) Characters – were they flat or were they fully thought out/well-written?
5) Messaging. Mostly in the sense that I like figuring out what a book is trying to tell me, rather than the author hitting me over the head with it while I’m reading.
My stars pretty much go along with the Goodreads system: 1- I though it was bad. 2 – It was just okay and could have been much better. 3 – I enjoyed it. 4 – I really liked it, but there were a few things holding it back. 5 – I really enjoyed it, and wouldn’t change anything about my reading experience (or there were small enough things that I am willing to overlook because I enjoyed the rest of it so much).
I also studied literature in college, so I think if I give books any more thought than those criteria, it starts to feel like I’m not reading for fun. I’m generally pretty easy to please!
I kind of have it like:
Prose/Quality of writing: 0-2 stars
Quality of plot, originality, characterization: 0-2 stars
How much it made me feel and if I find myself thinking about it: 1 star
Something has to have all the categories to get 5 stars.
Maybe it’s because I only recently started reviewing books, but I feel developing a strict criteria to rate them makes it hard to appreciate them as a whole.
There are excellent books with a couple weak parts and there are good books that don’t necessarily do anything wrong. Docking points based on a criteria instead of overall experience means the excellent books can get rated lower than the good ones, which is especially unfair to long books since they’re more likely to stumble at some point.
So, I keep my final ratings process simple:
* 5 stars: I loved these books so much, I feel I’ll likely read them again someday.
* 4 stars: I like these and don’t regret reading them.
* 3 stars: These were “okay” but I either DNF-ed because I felt the time could be better spent elsewhere, or I wish I had done so.
* 2 stars: I usually disliked these too much to finish but saw some element(s) in them that I especially appreciated.
* 1 stars: Disliked them too much to even care about their redeeming qualities. Usually DNF.
I get your point about wanting to have an objective way to measure books but imo, a one-size-fits-all criteria isn’t the way to go. I talk about stuff like writing style, pacing, overall feel of the book in the bulk of my reviews… but when it comes to the final rating, I keep it simple and subjective to more accurately convey the book’s impact on me.
My rating “system” is purely subjective, a reflection on how much I enjoyed reading the book and pretty much nothing else.
* 5 stars: this is one of the best books I’ve ever read
* 4 stars: I loved this book, but it wasn’t a “perfect” read
* 3: this was a fine way to spend my time
* 2: I disliked this book
* 1: this book actively sucked and reading it was a chore
I find myself rating most books 3 or 4. This is my approximate distribution:
5 – 10%,
4 – 30%,
3 – 50%,
2 – 10%,
1 – 0% (I’m lucky I haven’t attempted any 1’s lately)
What’s yours?
1. Not boring. 0-3 stars
2. Character development and/or world building subtly providing a lens enabling the reader to some truth about the human condition. 0-1.5 stars
3. Pleasant prose. 0-.5 stars
Vibes based.
5 – I loved this book! Super Recommend!
4- I liked this book but there’s a caveat I would mention if I recommended it
3- There were good parts of this book people might enjoy
2 – I can see this book being for someone. Maybe.
1- This book made me so frustrated
Mine is:
5 stars: I found it hard to put down, would read again, and it gave me either a strong emotional catharsis or intellectual/existential satisfaction. Where ideas and skill perfectly align. Made me want to annotate.
4: entertaining, maybe not as challenging as 5 but still well-crafted and has interesting themes to consider
3: mostly entertaining but not challenging, or started strong and then dropped the ball
2: had some fun moments but overall couldn’t keep my attention. Might have good bones but lacking in craft. Probably DNF
1: hot garbage. Poorly written, poorly edited, someone clearly thought writing was a piece of cake and overestimated themselves. Don’t even mention it in my presence or I’ll start ranting
My criteria is
5: excellent, loved it
4: liked but didn’t love. May have had some issues, but nothing that sunk it, and the good elements made up for the issues
3: had significant issues, but there were still some things to like about it
2: I didn’t find anything to like about it, but conceivably someone could
1: I don’t see how anyone could find something to like about this
my rating system makes no sense and is usually based on vibes. but, if i had to categorise it:
• 1 star: literally awful. how did it get published.
• 2 stars: basically hated it. probably dnf.
• 3 stars: it’s okay. nothing special. but not awful.
• 4 stars: loved it. so good.
• 5 stars: best thing ever and my new personality
i usually give books 3/3.5 stars. for a book to be 5 stars i usually need to connect with it on a deeper level. if i cant stop thinking about it for a good few months then that book is a 5 star for sure.