I’ve seen a lot of discussion online where people go into detail about what exactly each of the star ratings on Goodreads means to them, and I find it really interesting, because “three stars” gives you a general idea of enjoyment but it doesn’t tell you what those three stars are for and where the other two went.

I’ve seen people include a summary of the feelings and responses that correlate with each of the star ratings for them which is really helpful, but I managed to analyse mine in a slightly different way a year or so ago.

I looked at my favourite books and tried to find common things among them that made them perfect to me, which then made me look at what factors are important to me in a book, and I came up with a list of five:

☆ Characters – my favourite books are ones where I really connect to the characters, I can imagine them vividly and they’re so well-developed that they seem real to me. I care about them, or am interested in why they’re doing what they’re doing, even if I don’t like them.


☆ Writing – this one is quite broad, but basically I just have to enjoy the writing style. I usually like writing that makes me think “that’s perfect, how did you find the words for that thing I feel the same about but have never been able to express?” and that flows so naturally it doesn’t feel like someone laboured over it carefully for as long as they probably did.


☆ Plot – I don’t need or even enjoy reams of constant action in a book, but I feel like there has to be a sense of direction so that whatever plot does exist makes sense within its own world, but also that it’s something I find interesting. I could read a whole book about people sitting in one room and talking the whole time, if there’s a good reason for them doing so.


☆ Originality – this is a hard one to explain, because I don’t want it to sound like I’m discrediting anyone’s work and ideas or dismissing them as “unoriginal” or “simple” or something. But by this I just mean something that stands out in one way or another, something innovative, something that you don’t see done in many other books and something that is pulled off very cleverly. It’s kind of subjective, but I suppose that’s the beauty of books.


☆ Enjoyment – arguably the most important one. This star isn’t just for books that I liked, but for books that I was totally absorbed and involved in. Books that swept me away, books that I read with pure reverence, books that I can’t believe exist because they’re so perfect that no human mind can be that great, surely. Enjoyment can vary greatly and doesn’t necessarily say anything about the quality of the writing or story – it just depends on whether that book was right at the time.

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So if I have a book that fulfils all of these, it’s probably a five star – as I was writing out the list, I couldn’t stop thinking of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which fulfilled all of these categories tenfold for me. If it’s really really good but maybe I didn’t connect to the characters enough, it’s four. Sometimes I can’t quite tell what’s missing, and it’s more of an intuitive rating based on my feelings after finishing.

That’s the vague way I try to work with my ratings because the more you read and rate, the more you compare three star books with other three star books, but maybe they’re three stars in different ways. Of course this system isn’t always helpful, for example with non-fiction books, but I find it helpful for me to pinpoint what I was looking for and what was missing so that I can understand my own reading better and go on to choose books I’m more likely to love.

What are the most important things to you in the books you read, or is it simply a case of how much you enjoy it? 🙂