On Book Reviews


Once upon a time (::cough cough:: when I reviewed books for PostWhatever.com), I had to make up a rating system for book reviews. This is my breakdown, and since it still works for me (read: I'm too lazy to change it), I figure I'll keep it.

Rating:

5/5 - So delicious that I read until my eyes went blurry!

4.5/5 - Writing down the title so I can recommend it to everyone.

4/5 -  A satisfying read that’s worth every word.

3.5/5 - Great if you’re in the mood for it, only okay if you’re not.

3/5 - An okay read if there’s nothing better around.

2/5 - Got to the end and wondered why I bothered.

1/5 - Couldn’t push myself to finish it.


Note: I will be republishing reviews of my favourite reads from the PostWhatever.com days (a good book deserves good promotion).

As for other books, well, unless I need to vent, I'll probably only discuss books I enjoy. Picking apart something I don't like just makes me dislike it that much more, and frankly, it takes way more time to do that than gushing about something I enjoyed reading.

But then sometimes? Sometimes you just come across crap and it's your duty as a reader to alert your fellow readers of the doom within the pages... so... we'll see?


R's Book Reviews


My oldest son is on a reading rampage, and gets rather excited about his literary finds. Most titles are selected from his shelf are classics I've found secondhand shopping, and it's nice to see them appreciated—or not, as the case may be.

He's currently nine years old, and while some of these titles are a touch below his reading level, our philosophy is that any reading is good reading—it doesn't all have to be challenging to help him learn. His current favourite books are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, and he loved the Bone graphic novel series by Jeff Smith.

To help R get the word out on his favourite books we decided he would start his own reviews. Let's see how long this lasts... heh.

He's even devised his own rating system:

10/10 - Amazing! Everybody needs to read this book!
9/10 - Woooooow!
8/10 - Great!
7/10 - Thumbs up.
6/10 - Decent
5/10 - Okay.
4/10 - Meh.
3/10 - Didn’t like it.
2/10 - Really didn’t like it.
1/10 - Couldn’t finish it.