Rating Books
After I got on Goodreads, I first rated books that I had read before I joined, some of which I had read many years back. I had only partial recall of the content of most of them, so how to rate? I went with the general feeling I had after reading them, to the extent that that feeling still persisted. So, for instance, I rated highly many of the Wilbur Smith books I had read as a teenager (!) because the moment I think of any of his books, I am overwhelmed with fondness for that magical storytelling ability of his that had held me captive for hours on end. Similarly for Frederick Forsyth (who can ever forget “The Day of the Jackal”?), Alistair MacLean (“Guns of Navarone”, “Puppet on a Chain”), Robert Ludlum (“The Matlock Paper”, “The Scarlatti Inheritance”, “The Bourne Identity”) and others I had read over the years.
But for the books I read (and am reading) after I joined Goodreads, I started being more parsimonious while attributing stars. I don’t think I have given five stars to more than a small handful, and I have close to 500 books up now. I felt that people — other than the author — actually cared about ratings, so I should be more prudent. But how to be objective about it, especially with novels? Fiction is non-linear by definition, you can’t expect any particular structure, or even a sense of cohesion. If you want that, you should read non-fiction. (As I write this I recall “The God of Small Things,” by Arundhati Roy, which is the very antithesis of the boring MFA-stamped books that I see everywhere nowadays.)
After some thought, I came up with a simple scheme to rate books. If I finished it, it would get at least 4 stars. (I have given up on many books with just 20 or 30 pages to go, because I just didn’t think it was worth finishing, and I had only gotten so far by gritting my teeth and being charitable. Right now I have just given up on Lee Child’s “A Wanted Man” with only 25 pages to go! And I have read through ALL previous Lee Child books with carnivorous zip.) If I didn’t finish a book, but got through more than half way, it would not get more than 3 stars. And I didn’t even get half way through the book before giving up, it would get no more than 2 stars. (All of James Patterson’s books get 1 star - every time I go to the bookstore I see a book of his in the New York Times top 10 bestseller section, and I open to the first page and can barely stomach the first paragraph! The 1 star is for sheer perseverance.)
Go ahead, respect yourself, and your precious time. Don’t feel obliged to finish a book just because you started it. And rejoice in the new-found sense of freedom!!
