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 🙂