changes to my book reviews
Sep. 27th, 2008 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyAs of the end of the year (January first, 2009) I will be changing from a five-star system to a letter grade system.
F = One star = It was so bad I couldn't/didn't want to finish it.
D = Two stars = I finished it but it had some serious problems.
C = Three stars = I liked it. I would recommend it at least to some people.
B = Four stars = I loved it. I would read it over and over again.
A = Five stars = It could change the genre, or it changed my life, or it could change the world.
The reason for this is that I would like to indicate further gradations, and folks generally understand the A+, A, A- system. Three stars, especially, is too general - everything that I didn't hate or love gets three, and there's a lot of middle ground. This way I can be more specific.
For the book review communities where I publish things![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bookshare and bookish I am also considering posting quick-and-dirty summaries in front of a cut full review, like this:
Title: Cry Wolf
Author: Patricia Briggs
Genre: Sexy-woman-with-pentacle-tattoo, aka dark romantic urban fantasy a la Laurell K Hamilton
My Grade: B+
First sentence: "No one knew better than Walter Rice that the only safe place was away from other people." (If I have a quote that I like, I'll use that instead. In this case I wasn't attached to one.)
Who Should Read This Book: Folks who like the genre or would like an introduction to Briggs' work.
I consider the folks who read this journal to be my primary audience, so I would be very interested in any suggestions or refinements you all might have to offer.
F = One star = It was so bad I couldn't/didn't want to finish it.
D = Two stars = I finished it but it had some serious problems.
C = Three stars = I liked it. I would recommend it at least to some people.
B = Four stars = I loved it. I would read it over and over again.
A = Five stars = It could change the genre, or it changed my life, or it could change the world.
The reason for this is that I would like to indicate further gradations, and folks generally understand the A+, A, A- system. Three stars, especially, is too general - everything that I didn't hate or love gets three, and there's a lot of middle ground. This way I can be more specific.
For the book review communities where I publish things
bookshare and bookish I am also considering posting quick-and-dirty summaries in front of a cut full review, like this:Title: Cry Wolf
Author: Patricia Briggs
Genre: Sexy-woman-with-pentacle-tattoo, aka dark romantic urban fantasy a la Laurell K Hamilton
My Grade: B+
First sentence: "No one knew better than Walter Rice that the only safe place was away from other people." (If I have a quote that I like, I'll use that instead. In this case I wasn't attached to one.)
Who Should Read This Book: Folks who like the genre or would like an introduction to Briggs' work.
I consider the folks who read this journal to be my primary audience, so I would be very interested in any suggestions or refinements you all might have to offer.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-27 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 12:36 am (UTC)I considered the grading system early on, but I decided at the time it felt too much like I was "judging" the books/authors. But, you know, to get a book published you have to have a pretty thick skin, and I am certainly not the world's foremost authority or anything... and I suppose "I couldn't finish this book, I think it's terrible" is not going to be received well whether it's denoted by one star or an F.
I think more specificity available will be really nice. I mean, I'm basically increasing the number of ratings I can give by a factor of more than two...