Friday, August 27, 2010

Blogger Hop!

It's Friday - time for another Blog Hop hosted by Jen at Crazy for Books.

This week's question:
Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

This is something I have thought a lot about and have considered it several times. However, the teacher in me sees attaching a number/grade to anything as rather subjective. What makes a book 3 stars instead of 2.5? Or 4 instead of 5? I still like seeing how others rate books, but it doesn't seem like there is any real way that the points awarded can be justified - it's just based on your own feelings about a book. With reading for pleasure that is fine, but I recall the one time I filled out report cards for my first grade class (before I was a teacher librarian I spent seven years in the classroom). I ended up re-doing one of the report cards because I couldn't find it even though I had filled it out. Eventually it resurfaced and I had the two report cards to compare. While many of the "grades" (in first grade there are no letter grades, just E, S, N and I) were the same, there were some that were different. It made me realize how arbitrary grades like this can be. Much like rating a book. Part of it depends on your mood, the time you had to think about it before writing a review, if you were in a rush, if it is about a topic you are interested in, etc. There are certainly books that I didn't love, but that I knew were very well written, or that I thought about a lot after finishing and grew to appreciate more and more as time went on. The point value I give a book may or may not influence someone else to read a book or not, and I would just rather give my thoughts on what I think are a book's strengths/weaknesses than attach an arbitrary number to it. I also think that as a person who reads many, many reviews on books, I don't usually pick books that are awful. By the time I have done some research about a book I generally have some idea about this book and whether or not I will like it. I don't read many books that I would attach a "1" or "2" rating to - those books would probably be ones I abandon long before I finish them.
Who knows? Someday I may rethink my feelings on rating books, and I do look at other bloggers ratings, but right now I won't be jumping on starting a rating system on my blog.

Check back later today! I still need to link some of the new blogs I have found via the Hop and add them to my blog roll. I will also be writing a review of The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt later tonight- a book I started this summer and couldn't really get into, and then started again yesterday and just can't put down. Not sure what changed for me in that time, but I am loving this one!



6 comments:

Bev Hankins said...

Stopping by on the Hop. Have a great weekend!

bibliophiliac said...

I agree with you about having a rating system--and strangely enough, I am a teacher. I think that grading is tricky and sometimes arbitrary, and I would rather not have to give grades, but the reality is I have to. But when I write a book review, my approach is like yours--I'd rather give an honest review and let the reader decide for herself.

BrendaC said...

Dropping by from the hop. I am now following your blog and look forward to reading some great reviews! Have an awesome weekend!
kittycrochettwo.blogspot.com

Julie said...

Interesting thoughts about the rating system. I do have a rating system, but it is often hard to assign a number to each book I read. Because I am part of a book club, I do end up having to read books I may not have picked up myself, so unfortunately, I have had a couple that I rated very low. But the books I choose on my own, even the ones I get from publicists, are generally chosen because I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy them. And I'm usually right.

Elizabeth said...

Beautiful Side Panel.

Just hopping by....

Stop by my blog if you get a chance for reviews on I'd Know you Anywhere by Laura Lippman, Saving Cee Cee Honeycut by Beth Hoffman, and many others.

Happy Hopping, Everyone....hop on over to my blog to see my answer to the rating question.

http://silversolara.blogspot.com

Laura Kozy Lanik said...

Hopping by. I just drove through Iowa this month on my vacation. Stop by my blog, I have a post on Burr Oak, Iowa and two giveaways, stop by and enter the contests. I am also a teacher and now a follower.
http://www.booksnob-booksnob.blogspot.com