Reviewing and Star Ratings

I’ve been thinking over this system that seems to have been adopted to review books and decided to do a quick look at how I rate things.

I’ve always rated by my gut. As soon as I finish things I picked the number that most accurately reflected my thoughts at that moment. This makes for a lot of editing of ratings but I also enjoy having that record of initial response. I sometimes think that’s just as important in different ways to a thoughtful review. What got me thinking lately is the idea of the arbitrary number. While I know I can’t not put a number on a book in some situations like Goodreads or Amazon I can’t help but feeling like it’s… silly.
Silly at least for a space like this. Amazon and Goodreads both have their own similar but different scale for the stars, and those are necessary to help the authors and books I enjoy, but here I feel absurd giving reviews with numbers. Here I’m trying to tell you what I think, honestly. Do I recommend something? If not why? If I do, then to who and why? Sure I may say something is three stars. Yet I really recommend that as an easy, fun, brain recharge kind of read. I can’t give one number for all the way’s I’d rate or recommend something. That may work for some people but not for me.
So for now, till I adopt a better system, I’ll be simply putting at the top of each review in yellow if I recommend the book. Do I highly recommend it, do I recommend it to certain readers, if it was ‘just okay’, or if I’d steer clear. I don’t gush about books to my friends going on and on about stars and numbers. I talk about if I think they should read something or not. So that’s what I’m trying to adopt here.
Thanks for your patience and sticking with me if you’ve been around – I’m trying to get a bit more consistent with everything that’s going on, and this is a step I think will help!

❤