Tuesday 21 April 2009

About my rating

My rating, as any other, is subjective. I rate books in a scale from 1 (unreadable) to 10 (perfect).

I’d like to point out that for me “perfect” means “perfect for readers who enjoy Glen Cook’s style of writing”. I love His style, but I realize that some people can’t stand it. I will describe it in another post.

My rating points can be described as:
10 – perfect
9 – very good
8 – a little more than just good
7 – good
6 – a little more than average
5 – average
4 – a little below average
3 – bad
2 – very bad
1 – unreadable

As I wrote my rating is subjective. I judge books mostly by the fun-factor. I can enjoy a book immensely even though I can see its obvious flaws. Such book will probably get 9/10. On the other hand I have to force myself to read some books, even though I know that the style is very good and the plot is quite satisfying. Such books will get no more than 7/10. For me it is very important that a book is gripping. Some books have some hidden quality which is hard to point out, but which draws a reader to the book for no apparent reason. Most books by Glen Cook have that quality. They are much more as a whole than as a sum of its parts.

If there is a note that a novel has low re-reading value it means that I am not going to re-read it. Nothing more, nothing less.