I read books. Probably more than average, but somewhat less than a lot of people I know with degrees in English or Information Sciences (i.e. librarians), etc. Still, I read a lot of books and, by definition, very few are my favourite. I read them, then I rate them on librarything and goodreads. (I only update my goodreads once a year and use librarything for my main book-listing-storage and don’t bother trying to get me to switch to goodreads full-time because of the social aspect. I am an antisocial person and reading is sort of the epitome of antisocial. If I could bring a book to the bus stop so as to never talk to Super-Mom again, I totally would, except that would be purposefully rude and I don’t know if I can do it. Damn socialization to be nice!)
So in reading a lot of books that aren’t my favourites, I read books that I don’t like much. That’s easy. Two stars or less depending on how much I don’t like them. Then I read books that are okay, so three stars, maybe three and a half. Books I like, four stars and up. (We are ranking out of five.)
But what do I do with books I didn’t like most of, but then the end sort of pulled everything together? Maybe the last twenty pages were a four, but the first four hundred were a one? A weighted average? Or the fact that the author managed to pull out of a nose-dive should factor in more heavily? Or a book that I thought was one of the most amazing books I had ever read about Central American death squads which then, in the last third, turned into a Jerry Bruckheimer action film and totally squandered any positive feelings I had towards the story? How do I rate that one? No one tells you how to rate those? Or the book of short stories that I internet-know the person who wrote it and I’m the only person who has it in their librarything list so whatever I rank it, she’ll know it was me and if it is a bad ranking, then maybe she’ll internet-curse me?
Maybe I just need to make lists and stop ranking. This is too much stress for easily-stressed-out me.