Cheryl’s Comments (group member since Jul 30, 2011)

Cheryl’s comments from the More than Just a Rating group.

Thank technology, Hugh, for enabling you to read even though your eyes are going. I'm starting to lose some aspects of my vision, and it's terrifying. Knowing about the existence of e-readers lets me breathe a little easier, though. :)

BunWat makes an excellent argument for goodreads' system of (as Danielle says) letting the shelves do the talking. There are wonderful books in every section of the bookstore.

I used to read pretty much just sci-fi, since I was a teenager and loved Asimov. Then I joined bookcrossing, and a new world has been revealed to me. I feel like I almost wasted over three decades of my life! (Don't let it happen to you! :)

I'm glad we don't have 1/2 stars, even though I often use them in my review. Too much precision would lead me to sit there pondering for too long how to rate the book.

Using book darts (instead of post-it notes) helps me, as does start typing and hope for the best. But when I get stuck it's at a different stage in the process.

Sometimes I write a bunch of thoughts, but they don't add up to anything meaningful or helpful. I don't want to inflict incoherent ramblings on potential readers.* So maybe I need to take some of my reviews a little more seriously, actually make a rough draft, sleep on it, and try to find a focus for revision.

*Well, actually, I remember a couple of times I did. I recorded the miscellaneous thoughts, and then I said something like "the book was incoherent and rambling, much like this so-called review." Is that what's called 'snarky?'

Read Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences if you have fun diagramming sentences or want to know more about the craft. When I read a library copy, my then 13 year-old son had me buy a copy just for his own re-reading pleasure.

Dawn, that's the thing - I don't worry about the balancing. I talk about each element as it was notable in the book. After all, I'm not going to talk about plot in a science book. It's an 'a la carte' approach for me.

I am thinking about developing a 'menu' of such elements, to help me remember what to think about to make sure I don't, say, focus on characters when plot and literary style and theme are also relevant and worthy of discussion.

Oh I'm glad I started this thread. I love *all* of your responses - y'all obviously take care to be thoughtful. Thank you for explaining so well & interestingly!

'made my heart sing' - love it...

I know a lot of people have very idiosyncratic interpretations of what the star rating system means. I personally like going with goodreads' explanations though because then I feel I'm contributing something useful to the community.

On the third hand, goodreads definitions aren't quite *full* explanations of exactly what I mean. So, here's my version:

1 star. "didn't like it" simple enough, I can live with that

2 stars. "it was ok" for me, this means 'it was just barely ok - really don't have much good to say about it

3 stars "liked it" quite often books I read because others suggest them get this rating - it means 'it really was ok, not v. good, but I don't want to say mostly bad, either'

4 stars "really liked it" most books I choose for myself get this rating - they enriched me, and I have a variety of things that I can praise in a review, and I can find no real fault with them

5 stars "it was amazing" transcends the genre - could be appreciated by people who don't normally read picture books, or science, or poetry, whatever it may be - makes me wish for enough money to buy a copy just to cherish - makes a significant contribution to my thoughts about life & art

So, that's me. How do you actually use the stars?

I pretty much try to avoid labels because they do mean different things to different people.

Instead of saying 'story' and expecting my reader to know I mean plot + characters + world, I talk about the pacing, predictability, and plausibility of the plot, and/or I talk about the complexity of the characters and whether I cared about them, etc.

And instead of literary quality I'll talk about whether the author had a graceful & poetic voice or took it too far into 'purple prose.' And/or I'll talk about editing, anachronisms, etc.

And I'll definitely talk about whether a work made an impact, gave me something to think about, felt like the author was sharing something from his heart instead of just knocking off another money-maker.

More power to you who can effectively analyze books in this kind of manner, but it's been too long since I was in school and knew all these words like style and literary merit (that's why I set up a jargon thread :).

I agree w/ Jade. I don't like to read reviews that have the soul sucked out of them by too much revision. :)

If the book is so bad that I can't find anything authentically nice to say, I probably didn't read enough of it to feel right about rating it.

But almost all books are liked by *someone* for some reason, and I don't think it's coddling the author to try to say something nice - it's respecting both the author and the other readers. Everyone reads & writes for different reasons, and has different taste, and I won't tell people they're an idiot if they like a book I couldn't stand.

(My opinion. :)

Good for you Elizabeth! I'm sure your reviews are much easier to read and more helpful than mine! I don't even do that much.

Ok, good to know. Thank you!

good to know I'm not alone!

Looking back at some of my reviews I do tend to both 1. justify/ explain what I didn't like about it and 2. clarify that it is my personal opinion. Sometimes I also 3. find something nice to say.

For example, see my review of Punch with Judy

I like that review, Elizabeth. Terrific idea for a thread! I'm off to check my shelves to see what I've done...

That's probably a good idea. I tend to push myself to write reviews before moving on to the next book, for fear of forgetting too much or becoming totally unmotivated.

But if the book is good, it's probably memorable for a couple of days. And if it's not, well, that might be the focus of your review ("forgettable; wished it had made more of an impact").

Agreed!