Hey guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's
Catastrophe and today I'm here to talk
about my rating system. This is probably
a video that's quite overdue because
I've been on booktube for a long time
and I just haven't talked about my
rating system but let's get down to it. So first of all on my book blog when I
write reviews I do give a rating. And
on Goodreads I give a rating. So, for
every book I read I do create a rating
and on bookstagram when I give
my wrap ups I put my rating there
because there's not enough space for me
in those little captions to discuss all
the things I liked and disliked about
book. Howeve,r you will have noticed if
you've watched any of my wrap ups that I
don't give you a rating in my wrap-up
unless the rating was either 5 stars or
1 star. And I do that because I feel like
the rating doesn't really matter that
much. It's more so what I liked about the
book or disliked about the book that is
important. However, book blogs you're
there for the ratings and the opinions
simultaneously and some people like to
just glance at the rating. So I like to put it
there. But I do want to tell you when I
have a five-star book because that's
like, an extra recommendation because it
was so high. And I decided to mark those
with putting a new favourite stamp on my
videos. You've probably seen it if you've
watched my wrap ups. And basically what
it means is a) that I either gave it five
stars or b) that it's one that I can see
becoming a contender for my favourite
books of the year. Which is... it just means
it's a really good book. If it's a
one-star I want to tell you because that
means it's a book I do not recommend at
all. However, one stars are really rare
for me. I only had one one-star in 2019
and I haven't had any yet this year. Hopefully won't have any. But yeah, one
stars are very hard to get from me and
if I do give one I want you to know
about it. Ao how do I decide what rating
to give which book? It's quite subjective
and my rating system is so imperfect
that I don't really like -- I don't even
like my own rating system. That's how
imperfect it is. But I'll just tell you
about it anyway. So one star is for a book that I really
regret that I ever read. I have a problem
with DNFing and I've thought about
it, and I know I have a problem with DNFing. We won't go into that. Maybe
another video? But one stars are books that
I wish I had taken the time to DNF.
Also it's not just that. It's also a book that has to have something offensive
in it because I don't really give a one
star if it's really bad. But if that's
something that I think it's a dangerous
idea or theme or concept that it's
promoting or is showing in a good light,
combined with it being a pretty boring
book. It's gonna get that one-star rating. You should watch my worst books of 2019
video to see which book got that
one-star rating and why. And I think it'll
give you a good idea of why books get 1
stars from me.
Two stars: then more things come into
play. But a two star book is a book that I
just didn't enjoy and I wouldn't
recommend. There can be many different
reasons for this. I feel like my main one
for two stars is that it's boring or
it's written and formatted really badly. Poorly. As an English literature student
I appreciate a book that knows how to
structure its plot, that knows how to
build characters, that knows how to tell
a story. And if you're doing that in a
way that's too confusing with the
world-building,
or just basically a mess but in a book,
it's gonna get a two-star rating me. An
example of one of those that I read
recently was Infinity Son by Adam
Silvera. Another one is The Mysterious
Affair of the Letter by Alexis Hall,
where the world building was just not
strong enough. The characters were poorly
executed and felt like 2D stereotypes
and things like that. That's what gives
two stars. But my 3 star rating is where
it's really such a mess.
And that's because I have three kinds of
three star ratings and that that
shouldn't happen within a rating! But it
does. So that's why I kind of decided to
ditch ratings in my videos altogether. Because my three stars just didn't make
any sense. So a three star that is a low three star
for me is a book that's not technically
bad but it's not technically good either.
For an example of this would be Red
Sister by Mark Lawrence. There was
nothing that I could think that was
particularly wrong with that book, but I
just found it pretty boring. So I don't
feel like I could give it a two star
because it's not bad. And I'm not saying
nobody should read it, but it just wasn't
for me whatsoever. So that's where the
bad 3 star rating is. The
middle-of-the-road 3 star rating is kind
of more like The Night Mark by Tiffany
Reisz. I talked about in my
February wrap-up. It's when a book is
good but it's got some bad things to it
too. For example: a lot of fun to read,
I love the romance, but it's got some
rubbish self-preservation problems and
combined, mix it all together, it ends up
at a three-star. And then I have a good
three star rating. And this is where I
wish that Goodreads would let you do a
.5. Because my rating is
based on Goodreads -- as a blogger it just
makes sense -- so if I could include half
stars I wouldn't want 4.5. I
wouldn't want 2.5, 4.5, 5.5 --I don't need that in
my life. I just need 3.5
because sometimes I read a three star
book and it's good, but it's just not
good enough to get four stars. For
example Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I did
enjoy it and it was a fun read but it
wasn't anything particularly special and
it's not something that I would even
consider rereading. So it couldn't get at
that four star but it wasn't bad either,
and it wasn't phenomenal. It was just
middle of the road so that's a 3.5
for me. And a lot of books end
up there but it still gets lumped into
the three star rating with books like
Red Sister and that's where it gets
confusing! And why I just need to tell
you my thoughts rather than tell you a
number. Four star rating is when a book is good. It's fun, it's great,
and I really really enjoyed it. Sometimes
it means a book is really well written.
Sometimes it means a book has great
character development. Sometimes it just
means a book was a lot of fun. For
example, Nevernight. And sometimes it
means a book fantastic and should have
gotten a five star but then it does some
things technically wrong that means it
just can't quite be there. Again, Nevernight.
The footnotes were just useless and the whole book was brought down
because of it. And it just dragged it
away from that five star and to that
four star rating. But then we have my
favourite rating. And I'm so happy because
it seems like once a month I have about
one or two of these, which means I'm
getting better at knowing what I enjoy
reading. And that is the five star rating!
Five stars for me just means I recommend
it. Don't care who you are, I recommend
this book because it's fantastic. A five
star rating for me is something like The
Raven Cycle, The Lunar Chronicles, Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee. These are all
books that I either a) fangirl about b)
had a book hangover from; can't stop
thinking about them d) are so wonderfully
complex or handle
difficult themes in such a sensitive and
thought-provoking way that it just blows
my mind. Or it's just a book that blows
my mind. One I really enjoy a lot of the
time. It's a book that's really well
written, plot's done fantastically,
characters feel like they could jump off
the page, and that's where my rating
system gets a bit complex. Because a lot
of the time my rating system is
analytical and critical, I think. I think
it comes from me 'studying' English
literature. I like to know that my books
have been written well and that the
author knows what they're doing. And even
if they're doing something experimental
as long as it works within their book
then I'm happy. And I feel like I've
become a better judge of what works
within a book well or doesn't work
within a book, what could have been
improved, as I've gone along in my degree
and gone along with reading more, and
grown older. But then at the same time
part of my rating is based off of my
feelings. If I'm bored by a book, I don't
really care if it's well written. If
it's boring, it's boring. And that's when
it gets that middle-of-the-road 3 rating. So part of it is just: do I enjoy this
book? Am I having fun? Am I ignoring all
my responsibilities to read it? Then it
almost certainly gets a five-star. But
then as well as part of it being
emotional, a part of it being analytical,
I guess the other part is technical? A
lot of own I want to know what own
voices opinions are. I want to know if
it's handling topics well that it should
be. Does this person do their research if
it's a historical fiction book... is it set --
is it adhering to the time that it's set
in? If it's a science fiction book do all
these things add up. I do look at that as
well. And then last but not least I
also have personal preference. I have
always struggled to put a pin on what my
reading type is because I read across so
many age audiences and so many genres. But somebody commented -- I can't remember who
it was from the top of my head -- but they
watched my favourites of 2019 video and
then they said, 'oh, I can clearly see that
your favourite type of book is one that's
enjoyable, well-written, but also handles
an important topic.' And that, that doesn't
fall in any genre and that doesn't fall
in any age audience but that's kind of
what I like. So if a book,
whether it's fantasy, whether it's
contemporary, whether it's horror, if it
handles a topic really well and it's
well written , it's probably gonna get a
high rating from me. And I'm probably
going to enjoy it. And so personal
preference is injected into my rating
system as well. So there you have it. That's kind of how I get my ratings.
Thank you so much for watching this. Please let me know in the comment
section down below if a) this video makes
sense and b) let me know what the three
star rating means for you. Because I feel
like for everyone it's a little bit
different. Give this video a thumbs up if
you enjoyed it, hit the subscribe button
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every time I have a new video. And I'll
see you guys in the next one. Goodbye!
