I’ve been thinking about how I rate books, and I realised I sort of think about it the same way I think about hotels.
For example as someone travelling, if I book a cheap hostel and it’s clean, the hosts are nice, and its in a good location, I might rate it 5 stars because it exceeded what it was trying to be. It sets a standard with price and room size etc, but you think you got more than what you paid for ? But a luxury hotel that costs a fortune might get 3 stars if it doesn’t meet the expectations it set by charging the price it does.
So the rating isn’t just about quality in some absolute sense. To me it’s about how well something delivers on the experience it promises. I think.
I think about books in a similar way. The first part of a novel usually establishes something : the style, the tone, the ambition. And a lot of the enjoyment derived from reading it is the experience of it meeting or not meeting what it establishes right ? Plot twists are the best when they make sense because they were hidden, but established.
For example, I’d probably rate the film Annihilation (by Alex Garland, and actually any of his movies) around 3/5. But that’s very different from a “meh” 3/5 movie, like, I don’t know a decent marvel movie. The reason annihilation is a 3/5 is because it pisses me off. It’s an excellent idea, a fantastic ending with brilliant cinematography and music. Such an intriguing idea. Yet the meat on the bone, the way they use the idea of the film prior to the ending. Essentially how the plot moves from the idea/concept, to the resolution of this idea. Is just mediocre. It’s not inspired, especially considering how inspired the idea itself is. (I know it’s a book as well, I haven’t read that however) also don’t think the performances were any good but anyway.
But occasionally I read a book where the normal rating scale seems meaningless and I have no desire to rate it.
Not because it’s better than 5 stars, but because I don’t feel like I’m evaluating it at all. It just feels like the author is so completely in control of what they’re trying to do that I stop thinking about expectations being met or missed, I don’t notice I’m reading a novel that is using literary tools to tell a story. I just read.
There have only been a few books where I’ve felt this way
Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
And currently The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse (I’m just over halfway through).
It’s not that I think these books are objectively untouchable or above criticism. It’s more that I personally stop feeling the urge to critique them. I sort of reflect and think, for me to pass an opinion is pointless. Sometimes you read a novel and you know exactly what you did and didn’t like. And how the author could’ve improved it.
Anyway, hopefully this doesn’t come across as pedantic. Im wondering if anyone else has had that experience a book where rating it just felt a bit beside the point ? Let me know which ones did .
I did originally post this in r/ Books, hoping to cultivate an interesting discussion about why certain books feel this way, and if other people have anything to add. But it was taken down.
by biggaygoaway