Phew! Time seems to have flown this summer with the last two months just whizzing by. On the first day of August, I was lying on my bed that morning when I thought "Today is Aug 1... and that means just 5 more months for 2010 to be OVER, like INFINITELY over". And that scared me because that means we have lesser time to make more memories this year. Does that ring a bell with any of you??
Now that we are in August, its time to do a resolution look back post on my book reading resolution that I set for myself. I should say that the librarian has become my new best friend. Also, starting now, I'm thinking of doing a point system for the books I read (something like IMDB). I have my personal rating system there as well (more on that in a later post) and thought it would be better to have a similar one for the books too, based on how likely I am to read that book again. Other factors in that rating would be how likely I'd recommend it, who would I recommend it to (just my friends, or my age group, or everyone in this world!) and how likely I'll own it (I have a stringent system for buying books. I don't buy a book unless I think I'll read and reread and reread and .... you get the idea! This is the result of moving three times and I don't care about lugging books unless I really care about them. I'd rather have five books that I read and reread and depend on library for the rest to lugging a thousand books and not reading them - your idea of buying books might be different. So feel free to take this part of the rating with a pinch of salt). Here goes the rating system:
10 - This book would be with me always, in every place I live and would definitely own it. (Eg: Naintha Ullam, Anne of Green Gables)
9 - I would totally recommend this and would love to curl up with this one. Probably would own a copy. (Eg: Harry Potter books, Ponniyin Selvan)
8 - Really good, I'd recommend it for most people but not good enough for me to own it (Eg: Da Vinci Code)
7 - Good with a different perspective. Recommend it for certain people who I think can handle such perspectives. (Eg: Push)
6 - Ok for a one-time good read. Please don't buy it until you read it once and like that genre/author/story. (Eg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
5 - Ok... read it if you are looking for some book to read. Don't buy unless you really like the author/story (Eg: Plum books)
4 - Ok... if you are really wanting to read one and can't find a better one. I don't think people would own these books; they are more library-ish or lending library-ish.
3 - I wouldn't suggest it to anyone, but you can read it if you want to. You've been fairly warned!
2 - I'm thunking myself for wasting time reading this book. (Eg: some of the trash books I've read)
1 - Why, oh why, did the author waste his time, the publisher's time and countless readers' time in making this book? (Eg: frankly, I've not read any that hits this low... but I might surprise myself sometime!! So, this is the catch all bucket!!)
From my experience, most of the books would fall between 4 to 7 and I think it would take months for a book to join 9 and 10. I hope I don't ever hit 1 or 2 - might be because I read books that are recommended by family/friends or by popular sites. Lets see!
Disclaimer: I do realize that, unlike movies where you can get a common consensus about a movie, books are more personal and the reader's imagination and previous experiences play a huge part in making a book likable or not. But with the books list exploding, it's getting harder for me to remember the story line and the exact emotion the book stirred in me. For them to happen, I should give more time between two books to let a book settle on me. For, again unlike movies where you can immediately get an emotional response, books need to settle into daily lives to bring out an impact. With reading so many books, I don't let enough time go by between books to do full justice to them to settle down. But that said, with so much information bombarding us every day, it would be hard for anyone to give days to ponder on each and every book they read. Taking all these into account, this rating is very personalized to my views. Take this rating as a general review if you are thinking to read one of the books on the list but don't expect it to be the 'be all and end all' of book review ratings.
PS: I wish there was one stop shop for rating books. I do know that there are different services like GoodReads (this is by far the best I've liked), Shelfari, LibraryThing, etc. but I prefer something like the IMDB that combines books, the author infos, reviews and other interesting titbits. I'm sure people would switch to it, pronto! Is anyone out there listening?
1 comment:
I feel one should give at least a couple of months before moving on to the next one !
A good book is like a mango. Like when you get a burp after having a mango it still reminds you of that awesome flavor of the mango. In fact its a mango flavored burp :P
Likewise with a good book, after a long time one should be able to create a visual pic for a min or two when he close his eyes and think of that book.
I know its gross as a comparison but thats what just came from top of my head right now :)
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