Penny Arcade: Fine Distinctions discussion

How liberal are you with your five star ratings? What does five stars mean to you?

Looking back at a few of my ratings I thought that I was a little too eager to give something a 5/5, which in my mind means it's as close to perfection as a book gets.

This is based a good discussion some of us were having on a recent rating I gave... I thought it would be fun to continue it with everybody.

Obviously all ratings are subjective, but I wanted to see how other people used the scale. I think the hover-over comments on the stars "Really liked it, thought it was okay" are pretty good with the exception of 1-star and 5-star, which to me should be "terrible" to "a guaranteed classic, must-read".

Five stars to me, not only means "must read/classic" but also my willingness to reread the book. So if something gets five stars I'll have no compunction in buying multiple copies of the title in order to reread it, which is relevant as the vasy majority of my books are in boxes back home, half ways around the world

I really don't give too many 5 stars, I think. Too many years of living in a culture where it's impossible to get full marks, as it were.

Five stars goes to books I will reread and go out and buy.

I give five stars to my absolute favorites. Four stars go to books that I really enjoyed and I thought were above average. Three stars range from average to slightly below average---but it was good enough to finish. I almost never give a two-star rating because if it was that bad, I probably wouldn't have finished it.

I frequently neglect to give a star rating when I first read a book. Sometimes I go back and give one, but it's really tough for me to put all the books I've read into a hierarchy. . . .

I'm not afraid of pointing out books that I love, so I'm not afraid to give 5s. They're the books that I will tell other people about, that I will mention in "lists," that I am often excited about even before reading (but especially books that I'm excited about after reading). I read mostly on my Kindle and if I finish a book and want to buy a paper version simply so I can lend it out, that's absolutely a 5 star books.

A 4 star book is good, and I'm happy I read it, but it won't stand out as particularly amazing. I'll enjoy myself or the story, will be an advocate for the book if it comes up, but don't go out of my way to punt for the book.

3 means it's OK, that I liked it but it's kind of forgettable and I probably won't remember much about it. This is also where I put books that bug me in some way but that I still liked.

2 means I didn't really liked it but still finished it. This is where a lot of non-fiction would likely end up if I enjoyed reading it more, but also where books that I felt compelled to read for some reason but were otherwise unimpressed by go.

1 is usually meaningless for me because I try not to even consider books that I'd rate a 1.

I'm basically going by the hover-over comments. This may change as I flesh out my library and use of the site increases, but for now I'm satisfied with my current method.