Annie Cardi's Blog, page 45

Countless Stars: Why I Don’t Rate Books

Sorry, stars.

These days, it’s easy to review and find reviews about pretty much anything. Need to find a local Thai restaurant? Don’t worry–there are three in your area and one of them has been rated four-and-a-half stars. It’s a helpful way to find coffee shops/shoes/apps/etc. that you’ll most likely enjoy.

That goes for books as well. At sites like Goodreads, you can rate and review pretty much any book you’ve ever read. For example, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has currently been rated 4.35 stars by 1,840,709 people. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last fifteen years or so and have no idea what this novel’s about, it can be helpful to see that so many people rated it highly. “Hmm,” you say, “maybe I should check this out!” Conversely, if you find a book that has a really bad rating, you might be more inclined to skip it. I know I’m at least a little swayed by star ratings.

But.

I don’t like to rate books.

When I first joined Goodreads, I jumped on the star rating train. Four stars over here! Five stars over there! But sometimes I’d run into the problem of wanting to give a half-star and Goodreads isn’t really structured that way. I’d round up, wanting to be nice, but that felt disingenuous when compared to all the other full star reviews. Also, sometimes I’d finish a book and, coming off that good post-read vibe, rate it really highly. But then a few weeks would go by and I’d wonder if the book really deserved a five-star rating. Should I go back and change it? Or rate based on that initial reaction? And what did these stars even mean, anyway? Were five stars for books that I had all around positive feelings about, or should they be reserved for my all-time favorites? How bad does a book have to be for it to get one star?

For me, it’s hard to quantify the reading experience. When I try to rank books by stars, I end up feeling like J. Evans Pritchard in Understanding Poetry*:

A few things I find problematic. First, books aren’t necessarily like a dinner out or a futon–they stay with you and change you, and they have the potential to keep changing you over time. When I was in fourth grade, the American Girl books would have been at the top of my list. (Samantha’s in particular–Victorian era for the win.) If I were to give them a star rating now, should I take into account how I loved them in fourth grade and how they developed my interest in early 1900s history? Giving Samantha Learns a Lesson a two-star rating feels cold, even if I’m not necessarily picking up the book these days.

Second, it’s hard to compare books based on numbers. Maybe you loved one aspect of a book but found others less compelling, while another book was just kind of solid. Does that mean they both deserve three-star reviews? Ideally you could explain these reasons in a review, but that review doesn’t go into a book’s quantifiable average star rating. Can you give a literary classic like Ulysses a five-star rating and give the exact same rating to a hilarious and touching picture book like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? They’re very different but both beloved and praised in their own way. But how can a rating system differentiate between the two?

Third, even though ratings are ostensibly to make reviews clearer, they can vary dramatically from person to person. One reader might give three stars to books they enjoyed and save five stars for their very favorites. Another might see three stars as a rating for books that had some major flaws (you are missing two whole stars, after all) and give four or five stars to books they enjoyed. So if the system isn’t standardized, what’s the point?

I couldn’t get over these issues so, a few months ago, I removed all my ratings. Granted, I didn’t have more than a hundred or so books rated anyway, but it gave me a sense of relief. Now I use Goodreads more as a tool to keep track of what books I’ve read (especially helpful for Friday Fifteen reviews).

I know that rating can be a hugely helpful tool and I don’t think anyone should stop rating books if they find it helpful. But for me it doesn’t work, and I feel better now that I’ve stopped trying to make it work.

*Anything for a Dead Poets Society reference, right?

(image: Clarissa de Wet)

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s almost Father’s Day, so let’s take a look at the dads of literature in this week’s collection of fifteen-word book reviews:

1. Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

A novel full of heart about a boy, his dad, their caravan, and pheasant poaching.

2. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Gorgeous writing; read this a dozen times as a kid. Tuck himself is heartbreaking.

3. The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Compelling novel with complicated father-son relationships. Love the last scene with Reuven and his father.

4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Awesome, touching adventure about siblings who cross the universe to save their father.

5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Atticus Finch wins the “best fictional dad” award. Stunning novel all around.

Much Ado About Gifs

Things I like: Shakespeare. Joss Whedon. Last night I got to see both combined in the latest Much Ado About Nothing movie. It was so much fun! I went with my friend, Hannah, with whom I also saw Joss Whedon in person. (Needless to say, we were both way excited.) Obviously the only way to share our excitement is through a Joss Whedon-based gif movie review.

Spoiler alerts–but seriously, guys, the play is a few hundred years old.

My feelings about the cast:

The set, aka Joss Whedon’s house:

All the banter:

Everyone after the big party:

Don John setting up Hero:

Beatrice asking Benedick to fight Claudio:

What I want to tell Hero:

And of course Nathan Fillion being hilarious:

How I felt after the movie:

In all seriousness, it was really cool being in a movie theater full of people laughing out loud at one of Shakespeare’s plays. It’s a great example of how stories can transcend time and location. Human drama and romance and comedy touch all of us. And if those stories can costar Nathan Fillion, bonus.

Dickens Rocks

Sorry, Schoolhouse Rock!, I’ve got a new favorite source for humorous, educational skits and songs–Horrible Histories. Specifically, songs about Dickens:

Of course now I want indie bio-songs for all the classic authors.

(via Slate)

Links Galore

All the links I’ve been hoarding:

Awesome YA heroines who know how to get stuff done.
Avoid info-dump and weave in your backstory.
Reading Rainbow celebrates 30 years of helping kids connect with stories.
Even Shakespeare was inspired by current events.
Great glimpse into the editorial process with Sarah Dessen and her editor, Regina Hayes.
Grammar is going to the dogs.
Just Add Hot Water and other ways to achieve the writer’s work-life balance.
Thoughtful look at best friends in YA.
This Printz book club warms my heart.
In case you need to fill up your summer reading list.

48 Hour Book Challenge Finish Line

My first 48 Hour Book Challenge is complete and I consider it a huge success. It was so nice to have a weekend specifically devoted to reading. Although I didn’t get as hardcore as many people, I was still really pleased with my results. The books I had in progress are finished and I even added two new books to my pile. The final stats:

13.75 total hours read
1599 pages read
7 books finished
3 cups of tea consumed
Extra credit*: 1.25 hours reading time, 154 pages read

The Books

I don’t think I had a bad book in the batch. I felt like I had a nice mix of contemporary realism (The Moon and More, The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet, Dirty Little Secrets, and Jellicoe Road), fantasy (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and Shiver), and adult crossover (Tell the Wolves I’m Home). I’d definitely recommend any of the above. It also felt really good to finally cross a lot of those off my list–they’d been hanging out on my nightstand for far too long.

For me, this was a great reminder that sometimes you need to put away the phone, close the laptop, and shut off the TV. It’s easy to get sucked into “just one more Tweet,” but that ultimately means missing out on lots of good reading time. I’m going to try to be more mindful of this moving forward, because I loved reading all weekend. It reminded me of being a kid again and holing up in my room with a pile of library books. (You know, in the olden days when we used to have to call people to find out what they were having for lunch or when we couldn’t stream our favorite shows directly to our computers.) Any tweets or blog posts you miss will be waiting for you once you’re done with that chapter.

Thanks so much to Ms. Yingling for hosting this year’s challenge! (Also, major props to her 30 hours of reading time. Holy cow!) And high five to everyone else who spent the weekend

*If you didn’t see yesterday, the extra credit was from not having finished Jellicoe Road in the allotted 48-hour period but not being able to stop reading because of all the feelings.

Update #6: 48 Hour Book Challenge

I managed to fit (most of) one final book in during the 48 Hour Book Challenge. I got to 8pm (exactly 48 hours in) and was still about a hundred and fifty pages away from the end of my final book and couldn’t stop (SO GOOD) so I’m throwing a little in as extra credit. Onto the stats!

Update #6:

2.25 minutes reading time (13.75 total hours read)
265 pages read (1599 pages read)
1 cup of tea (3 cups total)
Extra credit: 1.25 hours reading time, 154 pages read

The Books

Review #7: Oh my gosh, guys. Jellicoe Road. This one has been on my shelves for a while and why didn’t I read this sooner? Seriously, it gave me all the feels. The writing is gorgeous, the characters are compelling, and everything weaves together beautifully. There were so many small moments and images that made me tear up–Fitz climbing the tree over and over again, Narnie explaining why she couldn’t move in the car, learning how Taylor chose her name. It’s a beautiful book and one that I want to immediately go back and reread. It’s full of sadness and hope and love, and I think this was the perfect book to end the #48HBC on.

It’s getting late so I’ll do a real summary of the challenge tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m going to sit here and feel and the feelings.

Update #5: 48 Hour Book Challenge

First new book complete!

Update #5:

3.5 hours reading time (11.5 total hours read)
390 pages read (1334 pages total)
0 cups of tea (2 cups total)

The Books

Review #6: I loved Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races and The Raven Boys so I was excited to finally dive into Shiver. When it first came out, I avoided it, thinking it was just another paranormal romance trying to bank on the success of Twilight. Wow, I could not have been more wrong. Sure, the paranormal romance aspect is there, but Stiefvater’s writing is stellar. She’s deeply concerned with character and, as a result, Grace and Sam feel like real people, not romantic ciphers. (And honestly, even the romance is some of the best I’ve seen.) The plot is exciting and never feels like Stiefvater is just throwing in complications for the sake of it. A friend described Shiver as a kind of fairy tale, and it definitely has that vibe in the best way possible. I can’t wait to read the sequels!

Update #4: 48 Hour Book Challenge

All the books I’d previously started before #48HBC are now finished. Take that, reading pile!

Update #4:

2 hours reading time (8 total hours read)
247 pages read (944 pages total)
0 cups of tea consumed (2 cups total)

The Books

Review #5: I was about 40 pages into The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet when I picked it up for #48HBC and it was a great addition to the pile. It’s got a lot of humor and heart (the image of Dezzie wearing a “Though she be but little, she is fierce,” shirt made me cheer), but never forgets the anxiety of fitting in in middle school. I also like that Hamlet has a lot of very real reasons to feel awkward and embarrassed–from her Ren Faire-costumed, iambic pentameter-speaking parents to her super-genius sister to worrying that her friend is crushing on her, Hamlet has a lot to be concerned about (especially when all she wants to do is fit in). I don’t read a ton of middle grade novels, but this is one I wish I’d had when I was younger.

Update #3: 48 Hour Book Challenge

Plowing through my “mid-read” pile this afternoon. Glad I can finally put these back on the shelves!

Update #3:

1.5 hour reading time (6 hours total)
196 pages read (697 pages total)
0 cups of tea consumed (2 cups total)

The Books

Review #3: I was a little less than halfway through Dirty Little Secrets when I picked it up for #48HBC. It’s one I’ve meant to read for a while, since it deals with a big family secret and a mother with some emotional/mental problems (in this case, hoarding). My heart broke for Lucy through this one, as she feels a strange hope in getting to move on with her life if she can just clean out the house. Omololu manages to make Lucy’s mom into a real person, not just someone defined by her hoarding, and I liked those glimpses of her outside of the house (at work, as a child). I also liked that crush-worthy Josh Lee is revealed to be dealing with his own family problems; I love that “everyone has secrets” theme and it’s one I tend to use in my own work. The ending felt a little rushed for me, and I would have liked a little more of an emotional build there, but overall a great read for anyone interested in YA contemporary family drama.

Review #4: I was almost at the end of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and so glad to finally finish this one. It’s a tome, so even though I started it a while ago, I’d inevitable leave it at home and take another book with me. Then I’d want to finish the other book and, well, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell suffered for it. But it’s an excellent novel–fake British history plus magicians is a winning idea, and Susanna Clarke gets the tone perfectly. I loved seeing the various plot threads eventually come together, and the ending is surprisingly bittersweet.