What makes a 5-star book?
It’s a question that’s been stumping me a lot lately, particularly because I’ve been rethinking my rating system recently. I’m terrible at reviewing books – which you have all heard me say before, I’m sure – and I want to give EVERY stinkin’ book I read 5 stars! And so that brings me to the question at hand.
What I can say is this: it most definitely varies from reader to reader. I’ve seen some bloggers/fellow bookworms never even rate a book 5 stars because “there is no perfect book.” I know some who are super hard on books and only give their absolute FAVORITE book 5 stars. But what about me, you ask?
Well I’m glad you brought that up. Because I’m going to tell you either way.
I do give a lot of books 5 stars. And I feel guilty about that, because sometimes certain books may not deserve 5 stars. But then I feel guilty about not giving a book 5 stars, because I think they DO deserve that rating. I’M JUST TERRIBLE AT IT, okay??! All books are amazing and totally rad, in my opinion, if a human took the time to write something that meant something to THEM and someone else with cool characters and everything and I just hate. rating systems. But that is for a whole other post. Lemme get to the point.
For me, a 5-star book isn’t always a perfect book. NO book is 100% perfect. Let’s compare books to humans for a sec. NOTTAONE is perfect. But it’s our imperfections that make us beautiful! (look at me, going all deep on you.)
A 5-star book – from my point of view – is a book that I a) connected on a deep level to the characters and therefore b) will re-read it. And YES, I will still rate books and cringe at the review a tad later because I would give that a book a different rating now… BUT I never, ever change my initial rating. In the 1st grade, I would have given a Junie B. Jones book 5 stars – but probably wouldn’t now.
So there’s my standpoint on it… for now! I’m a very confuzzled person sometimes – especially when it comes to reviewing books – so I’m going to be doing some more thinking on it. Still not sure about changing my rating system to something that fits my style better, but we shall see!
how do you feel about 5-star books? do you like reviewing/rating books? i need your help! let me know!
Annnnnddd… before I forget! Congratulations to the winner of the notebook giveaway – Amanda H.!!! I hope you love it – I’ll be sending an email to you shortly and hopefully getting it to you soon. Thanks everybody for entering!
P.S. I’m sorry I haven’t been approving/answering comments recently – it’s been a busy week and it’s going to be a busy weekend, but I’ll catch you up soon & I’m still reading all your sweet comments! (They make my day, so thanks.) 😉
WHOA. Is that me?? unless there’s another Amanda H. out there. 🙂
Anywayy, I have a hard time rating books too. Do I rate it by what it deserves or by what my emotions say? I just read Beowulf for school and I knew it deserved 4 or 5 stars, but my enjoyment was maybe a 3 or 3.5? I ended up giving it a 4. *shrugs* I guess it depends on the book. IT’S A STRUGGLE.
YES it’s you!! *throws confetti in the air* whoo!!! I promise I am just about to email you! 🙂
I’m pretty similar to you when it comes to handing out five stars to books. I rate a lot of the books I read 5 stars, and sometimes I feel guilty about that because I think I’m being too nice, but then if I’m not nice with my ratings I also feel guilty. But then other times I sit back and realize that my many five star ratings are perfectly fine because you know what? Maybe it’s just because I choose to read books that I have a good feeling I’ll really like. Hmph. 🙂
Anyways, I agree that books don’t have to be “perfect” for me to rate them five stars. Usually for me five star books are those that really made me stop and think, and that I enjoyed. Also, all my childhood favorites get an automatic five stars. Even if I reread them now and find out that normally I would rate them two stars, they will always be five star reads for me because they bring back childhood memories.