Review Ratings

Back when I started this blog I decided upon a five star rating system and explained it here. At first I was quite happy with my system. I like ratings as they help you record how much you liked it or not so you can look back down the line and see what you thought of the book at the time. They are also useful for other people, in that it gives them a general idea of how much you liked the book and they help colour the review.

Yet, lately I have been feeling confused. Five stars is sometimes not enough because I could give two different books four stars but still like one of them significantly more then the other. I have been thinking that I should change my rating system for my blog. For the last few reviews deciding upon a rating has been very difficult and quite uncomfortable.

However, I have no idea how I want to change it, because I still feel as if I need some kind of visual representation if how I feel about a book. Perhaps I should move the rating to the bottom of the review rather then at the top, like I have seen in many other books? Then it would put less of a relevance on the rating itself.

Or maybe I should rate books out of ten rather then five, because there is not enough leeway with five stars. On the other hand, that feels too complicated and will have me thinking even more about how many numbers award the book.

Perhaps I should replace stars with words? Or perhaps a wordle of words I would use to describe it? Or maybe colours? Something that just represents my feelings on a simple, visual level.

This for example? Just a simple wordle containing some adjectives that relate to how I feel? I think I’m starting to sway towards this idea. Choosing a star rating would be easier perhaps but it’s also fairly restrictive.

I’m still contemplating. I started this blog post not really knowing what I was going to say, or decide on other then to discuss a change of rating system. I feel that after coming back from my unexpected blogging break, that I wanted to change the way I review books because it was one of the things that was causing me some frustration.

I’m in the mood for refreshment and turning over a new leaf. Is anyone else going through some blog refurbishments?