The Best Reader + review

Why I Don't Rate Books

So, you may have noticed (or not), but none of my reviews have ratings. No five out of five stars, books, kisses, hearts, smiley faces ect.

There is a deliberate reason for this.

I'll admit it, when I read other people's reviews I definitely look at how they rated it. My eyes are just drawn towards the bottom. But my blog is a little different in it's purpose, as a result, I feel like rating books would do more harm than good.

For instance, most people have very different degrees of ratings.

Stay with me. It gets good, I promise.

Personally, I would rate very VERY few books as a 5/5. Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, and Romeo and Juliet would about cover it. Then everything I absolutely adored but couldn't rate quite up there would go to a 4/5, like Mr. Darcy's Diary, the Harry Potter books, the Twilight Saga, Jane Austen Ruined My Life, etc. To me, a five is a spot that a book must earn, and really earn.

When I think about this and about the purpose of this blog, I think that ratings will only deter (rather than inspire) readers. Many students may only look for fives or fours — and if I were personally rating them, there just wouldn't be a whole lot to chose from. I think I need to leave it up to my students to decide how they would rate the book. To each his own — so that's why in my reviews, I tell what I liked and didn't like... but it's still my opinion.

I don't think I'm explaining this well — but I thought it was worth attempting to explain.

So what do you think? Am I completely off base in my reasoning? Should I be rating books?

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Why I Don't Rate Books + review