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I have always shied away from ratings because they come with preconceptions and I have worried about them distracting from the actual words in a review. Places like Goodreads push them though so I have been putting some thought into what I mean when I rate a book. On a five star scale 3, 4 and 5 are all good to me, books that I have enjoyed and am glad to have read. Two stars is the ‘meh’ rating and 1 is something I just didn’t get on with at all.

Generally speaking I would expect to mostly be giving 4s because I have picked a book for a reason and it is likely to appeal. A 4 means that I recommend the book, whether or not it is the type of thing you usually read, and this is an author I would gladly return to. These are books I have really enjoyed and will keep an eye out for more by the same author. As an example, someone like Will Carver who I read whatever he puts out is pretty sure to hit a regular 4 stars, with a 5 on those occasions when he just blows me away, like Nothing Important Happened Today (honestly, read that book!).

To get into the 5s a book really has to be something special. Wendell Berry is someone I think the whole world needs to read and he sits pretty assuredly in the 5 star category, but he might slip to a 4 if the book gets a little too into the specifics of farming which is more niche than his “everybody needs” reflections of life. Recently I gave Simone Buchholz’s The Kitchen a 5, when normally a book in the crime genre would be struggling to go above a 4, but her Chastity Riley character resonates with me so strongly that I have to give that extra credit, so maybe it isn’t a totally clear cut system, sometimes you have to break the rules.

Whilst 3 stars can sometimes frustrate authors, for me it is a good score, it means I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to other readers, but I might have some sort of caveat to my recommendation, like they really should like this particular genre. If they are regular readers then go for it, but if you only get chance to read a few a year then maybe prioritise something else that really takes your fancy. 

I can’t recall giving a 1 or a 2 star rating, but if I do it just means it didn’t work for me, that doesn’t make it a bad book. It’s all just opinions in the end.