My Rating System

When I was about 12, one of my absolute favorite TV shows was a video game review show called Xplay on TechTV, a video game review show that was equal parts informative and funny, while also sparking my interest as a child to start writing, because I thought I’d be a video game journalist. While the journalism thing didn’t pan out as I grew and started getting interested in other things like computers and programming, I still always really liked writing, and I especially love writing about my interests.

So that’s the basis for this blog, I like writing about books read and assign them a rating similar to what Xplay did back in the day. It’s a simple 5 star rating system, no half stars to keep things simple, because, really, what’s the actual difference between a 3 and a 3.5? Or a 3 and a 3.25? In both cases you liked it, you just liked it slightly more on one but the general message is the same: you enjoyed whatever it is you’re rating. I feel like some people love to have that level of granularity, some even going to the extreme of having a 100 point system, but then only rate everythin an 80 or higher, which defeats the whole purpose of the scale. Listen, if I have a full rating scale available to me, I’m using the whole scale.

The Scale

☆☆☆☆☆ — DNF. Didn’t finish it, no rating.

⭐☆☆☆☆ — Not for me. Something about it actively got in the way of my enjoyment.

⭐⭐☆☆☆ — Alright. Some good stuff, but definitely has things holding it back. Might work better for someone else.

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ — Good. Fun, solid, maybe a few minor flaws. Most books land here, and that’s not a bad thing.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ — Great. It’s up there, but missing that intangible thing that makes it perfect.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Perfect. My absolute favorites. These are books I couldn’t put down.