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Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. You can expect three kinds of emails:
Reviews and rankings of books I read in the month. I never give up on a book, so even if I didn’t like it, you might.
Recommendations for books surrounding specific themes, places, histories, moments, etc.
Stand-alone reviews of stand-out books.
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The Rating System
I rank books on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst, 10 the best. The majority of the books reviewed on this blog will be ranked between 5-10. I do not normally pick up books that I think I won’t like, so truly terrible ratings are not common. It might make more sense for me to rank on a scale of 1-5, but I’ve been ranking from 1-10 for so long that it is too late to go back now.
Here’s a rough sketch of how I give ratings:
1 - could not finish (rare to non-existent)
2 - not good, had to skim large portions to get through the book
3 - below average
4 - slightly below average, would not recommend to someone even if it was a genre they normally like
5 - average
6 - all right
7 - liked it
8 - really liked it and well written (most common rating)
9 - loved it, definitely worth the time and usually the recommendation
10 - absolutely amazing, blew me away, will recommend to anyone who asks me what to read next (rare)
