This is a blurb I added to my About page today, but thought I’d throw in as a little random musing of a post as well.
Why No Star Ratings?
Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable rating books with stars or numbers.
Back when I was still teaching, grading was my least favorite thing in the world, because literature isn’t a field where you can just slap on a grade based on multiple choice exams. Grades are based on individual work: essays and dissertations and projects. And I had a difficult time justifying to myself why one student got an A and another a D. I think it all just comes down to my not being wired to think like that, and it’s one of many reasons I left academia.
So I’ll write about and discuss books, but I won’t give them a “grade,” because it just feels like I’m back at my old job. I can also see myself rethinking and re-rating, and that’s just not fair to authors and fellow readers.
And to be clear, I totally enjoy seeing how others rate books, and why they do so. So it’s not a matter of my hating ratings in general; they just don’t work for me.
