What are your five main criteria for rating a book?

[Ramla Zareen]

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well :-)

I thought it might be interesting if everyone shared their criteria for evaluating which book is better.

What makes you rate one book higher than the other?

Is it the premise?
The story?
The plotting?
The writing?
The pacing?
The characters?
The setting?
The world building?
The ending?
Is it how the book makes you feel?
How the book helps you learn and grow?
How the book keeps your interest?
How much enjoyment the book provides?
How well the book meets your expectations?
How well the book fulfils your requirements?
Or is it something else altogether?

Suppose one book is good in some areas and another book is good in other areas. In which areas does the book has to be good for you to consider it better?

And to make this even more challenging—how about everyone limit themselves to maximum five criteria each? Just to push ourselves to figure out our most important ones :-)

Thank you :-)

[Waqar]

Hello. This is an interesting post so here go my five criteria (in no order). Since I read a lot of non-fiction (history) related books so my criteria options are based on that.

Before I start, just a word on my personal history reading project. I have set for myself a goal to read world history in a sequential manner. I started from the Achaemenid empire and am now finishing up the last book in Roman-era history. I plan to move further ahead and read up on the Byzantine empire, the Persian Sassanid and Parthian empires and then start reading Islamic history.

1) The story
For a non-fiction book, this is very important. Like I said above, I pick up book titles from GoodReads and read up their reviews on this website and on Amazon.

2) The writing?
This is another extremely important factor. I have read a couple of really dry books on the Seleucid empire's history. Also, recently I have read a couple of books which were extremely well-written (the assassination of Julius Caeser: A people's history of ancient Rome and an Urdu language book on feminism, Tareekh ki Azeem feminist auratein by Naeem Mirza). I think the writing of these books really helped me understand the subject matter.

3) How the book helps you learn and grow?
Another very important criterion. Like I said above, I mostly read non-fiction and hence whatever part of the world, Asian or European history I have read since the start of 2021, has helped me grow and understand many things from a new perspective.

4) How the book keeps your interest?
This is a major factor which keeps me going while reading a book. Several times, my mind has drifted away while reading uninteresting books so the way the narrative is told is important.

5) How well the book meets your expectations?
This is the fifth most important criterion for selecting a specific title. I recently finished a book about the Roman empire and it left me feeling underwhelmed after I finished it. I think it did not cover the subject matter in a sequential manner and picked different things from the Roman empire era and discussed them arbitrarily. Hence, I felt that the book did not add much to my understanding of this topic.

That's all. Thanks. I am looking forward to reading all of your book rating criteria.

[Ramla Zareen]

Hi,
Here are my five main criteria in no particular order:

1 & 2) Writing & Characterisation

The writing should be polished and engrossing.

I should be able to connect with the characters—at least the protagonists.

I should be able to know their thoughts and feel their emotions.

I should be able to feel their bond with the people in their lives—family, friends, love-interest etc.

I should be able to like them and root for them.

Their actions should be believable with respect to their personality, their backstory, and the world they're inhabiting.

They should learn from their experiences and evolve—as individuals and with respect to their relationship with others.

3) Personal Growth

I should be able to learn as well. It could be the same lessons the characters learned, or I could draw my own conclusions from their experiences and learn from them. A character could inspire me to aquire a positive value or trait or discard a negative value or trait. A book could offer me an insight into another culture or era. It could provide a positive message. It could help me improve my writing. Teach me something else. Whatever it is, there should be some personal growth on my part after reading the book.

4) Enjoyment Level

I should be able to enjoy the book.

By the way, I debated a lot before deciding on this criteria. I was confused between these three:

(A) How the book keeps my interest
(B) How the book makes me feel
(C) How much enjoyment the book provides

Then I figured I would only enjoy a book if it kept my interest and made me happy. So I decided to go with Option C as it covered all the points.

5) Ending

The book should have a happy ending. The protagonists should end up successful and happy. The antagonists should be redeemed if they're redeemable or they should be punished and brought to justice. All the loose ends should be tied up. The book should leave me feeling happy and satisfied.

Well, these are my main criteria. It was harder than I expected to limit myself to only five. Lol.

A book good in these areas but bad in others would be better—for me—than a book bad in these areas but good in others.

A book closer to what I described above would be better—for me—than a book further from it.

I guess this is why Cozy Mystery, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy, and Romantic Suspense are among my favourite genres as they have these five qualities.

Of course, if I could have added more criteria, I'd have included "plotting" too, as Cozy Mystery and Romantic Suspense also contain Mystery, which requires solid plotting.

I'd have also included "how the book keeps my interest" since a Mystery should be intriguing. Still, I doubt I'd enjoy a boring book, and I mentioned "enjoyment level" as one of my five main criteria, so I guess that's okay.

One of my favourite Classics is Anne of Green Gables Eight-book Series by L. M. Montgomery. It possessed the five qualities I mentioned above. I'm not into Fantasy, yet I loved the Harry Potter books. That series also had these five qualities.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning everyone's main criteria for evaluating which book is better. Thank you :-)

@Waqar

Great list. Thanks for sharing :-)

[The polygamist]

For Personal Growth, I sometimes wonder how such prominent authors produce this power point-style clutters. I started reading a few books, quite well known with good ratings, but couldn't finish. They have enlisted every good trait existant on earth in their book. For personal Growth books, I love the style of Rober Kiyosaki & James Claire. They build a narrative/character and then share good learnings. Probably one at a time in a narrative. I have lately felt that some books are overrate owing to this phenomena.

[Thall]

I remember discussing this in a thread years ago. Interestingly, my mind hasn't changed a bit.

Anything below 3 stars should well be discarded.

3 stars is for a well-written book but for one reason or another it glided over me. It might be somebody else's cup of tea, not mine.

4 stars is for a perfect book. Well-written, strong message, well-structured, accomplishes its goal. This is the book that everyone can get something from.

5 stars is for flawed masterpieces. It excels so brilliantly in certain aspects that it seems almost lopsided, flawed in some fundamental way. It's uncomfortable to read. Maybe even a slog to get through. But what it accomplishes, nothing else can. An impact that could not be achieved via the usual means. A work of perfect necessity.

[Schaheen]

Well, the criteria would depend on the genre. What I measure in literature may be opposite at how I assess non-fiction, et al. In either predicament, the criterion includes:

1) Wit and Erudition of the subject: The writer must capture my mind

2) Depth: I tend to relish writing that has the artery of life flowing, where the writer is able to unify the reader and the pulse of the writing rather effortlessly.

3) Outstanding Plot / Characters : apropos literature - how brilliantly the characters are positioned to sustain the plot. I determine If there is a distance between the characters and the readers, or, whether the reader can reconcile with the arbitrary choice of relativity. I tend to savour good fiction by the sheer beauty of language, the authenticity of emotions the characters evoke, and not mere sentimentality or banality.

4) Attentive: any genre - the narrator's motivation to engage the reader to explore, observe, probe and construct a space to bewilderment.

5) Grammatical and Stylistic Convention: Non-negotiable about diction and tone.

Cheers