I believe that if you are reading a physical book, you have just given me an invitation to talk to you. I love finding new books and getting new book recommendations for these instant new friends. Otherwise, I'm left to wondering the book stacks at the library or click rabbit-holes of the internet to find new books to read.
The few things in books I gravitate toward when selecting a book are: does it look like I'll get a giggle or two while reading, if so, then I'm in; did someone recommend it to me and why did they do so; have I read the author before and enjoyed the previous book; or does the cover or back blurb sound interesting to me at the moment?
Once I'm done reading a book, I make sure to leave reviews on Goodreads. I've been doing this since 2012 for a few reasons. Starting out, I left reviews because I couldn't remember what books I had read or what I had seen a billion times but hadn't started reading yet. Then it became a useful resource when someone asked if I could recommend a book to them, I had already written down a few reasons why as to why I liked a book. Now as an author, I understand how important each review is to us who slave over the printed page to produce a manuscript.
Here's how I rate books:
***** Five Stars would be reserved for books that changed my worldview in some way, opened up a vista into a strange new world and left me enriched, I laughed and/or cried hard throughout, or after reading the book I had to buy the book to reread.
**** Four Stars would be a really great book, substantially above the ordinary because of one or more of the characteristics listed above but don't know that I would read it again because there are so many other books to discover.
*** Three Stars would be the vast majority of the books I’ve read–solid stories, well-told, with empathetic characters in interesting situations.
** Two Stars describes books that fail on one or two the of items listed in the three star category.
* One Star books fail all or most of my criteria. Typically, I do not finish these books.
Do you leave reviews for books? Why do you do so? Where do you leave the reviews?
Onward to more books,
Melissa Borg