I love lists. When I see a list of best books or best movies I always have to take a look and see how many of them I’ve read or watched. Many times such a list is full of selections that are on there for a specific reason, like it was groundbreaking or the perfect example of the time, and once I have read or watched it I can usually see why it made the list. In 1998 when the American Film Institute can out with its list of 100 Years 100 Movies Jason and I took the next 10 years and watched them all. We even did our own rankings. I liked so many of them, but when I compiled my own list of favorite movies, most of them didn’t make the cut. Because favorite means I made some kind of emotional connection (no matter how superficial) and it always means I have watched it more than once. That’s the test for me. If I’m not interested in watching it again, no matter how much I liked it, it will not make the list. So, when I review a movie from my Top 100 List I always watch it again. There have been a few times that I then decided I didn’t want it on the list (well, twice). As for books, I have not read every book on my Top 100 List twice, but I am working on it slowly.
Do you think there’s a difference between best and favorite?
And I may as well address my rating system for books since it seems like a good time. My ratings are as follows…
***** Perfect!
**** Nearly Perfect. You should read it.
*** Average. Read it if the topic or author interests you.
** This was pretty bad.
* I only finished this so that I could enter it on the blog.
I always rate a book and put it right at the top of my review. But these ratings are so subjective they should really only be a starting point. Timing is everything. I am sure my mood influences rating as does my expectation. If I expect it to be perfect and it’s only good, well, my disappointment may show up in the star count.
Genre books are different. If I give a mystery book 5 stars, that means it was the perfect mystery, it couldn’t have been done any better in my opinion. I am not judging it against a non-fiction book about the horrors of war or a novel about the meaning of life. So, I guess whatever category the book falls under, always listed after my rating, makes a difference in its rating too.
I may go back and change a rating, but only if I rated it recently. I am not going back two years and re-evaluating. I know bloggers have and I applaud you, but for me, how I felt just after I read it is probably more accurate. Especially since my memory sometimes fails me 🙂
Still with me? Thanks for reading my bookish thoughts today 🙂
Stacy's Books 
There is a definite difference in best and favorite. My favorites aren’t always the best – like you, I chose them because they struck a chord with me.
Totally the same about ratings and genre ratings. I’ll just cut and paste this post onto my blog… just kidding! But I totally agree!
I totally agree that mood has a lot to do with liking or loving a book. I hardly ever re-read a book, but I certainly watch my favorite movies over and over again!
There is a big difference between best and favorite, I think. One is more of an emotional decision (favorite) while best is more of a qualitative decision. I’ve realized I need to write my reviews for books much sooner after I read them though as I tend to lose my memory of what I liked about them pretty quickly.
Hey Stacy, I liked your bookish thoughts today. It seemed like we were just chatting. Could you see my head nod? lol I’m in complete agreement.
Oh, absolutely, best and favorite are two very separate things. One of my favorite books is The Show Gypsies by Leigh Brown. I’ve read it ten times. Ever heard of it? I didn’t think so. See?
Best and favorite are definitely two very different beasts. I don’t rate books but I wonder sometimes if I should. One of the reasons I don’t is because of that mood thing and not wanting to put people off if my reaction depended a lot on it being the wrong book at the time. Then again, I know loads of people appreciate ratings, so I’m torn. I guess I’ll continue to be lazy and not do them until I come up with a reason to change. 😉
Best and favorite are definitely two differnt things. Favorite I see as personal whereas best is decided by some committee of people somewhere that may not have the same thoughts as me. For example, The Goonies is one of my all time favorite movies, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t making a Best list anywhere 🙂
I also don’t always agree why certain things are the Best, like the Best Picture for the Oscars and such. The Oscars tend to be very political and not always fair.
Top 100 books…good idea but it would probably be a challenge for me, becuase I would keep coming up with ones to add. Excellent post Stacy.
Like you, I have changed a rating by .25 a couple of times, but fairly soon after originally rating it. I agree – my ratings are often at the mercy of the mood of the moment, too.