Updates on the Rating System

So it's time for a change.  The rating system I had originally put together for the blog is just not working for me.  For example, when trying to figure out how to rate The Reluctant Assassin, I was completely lost.  I couldn't decide if it should have a B or C rating, because B seemed too good, but C was too harsh (based on my definition of those grades).  And then you add in the pluses and minuses, and it gets to be too much.

You know you need to make a change when your own rating system confuses you.

Going forward, I'm going to be using a system closer to what Goodreads uses (ok, I'm totally stealing it from them).  Pretty much, everything will be given a rating out of five cupcakes.  Why cupcakes?  Because besides books, baking is a huge passion of mine, especially cupcakes.  So it only seemed fitting that I should use cupcakes (all the credit for this idea goes to my sister).  And all the credit for the cupcake images goes to my brother, who designed these for me.

The New Rating System

• 1 Cupcake (Didn't like it)  -  A rating of 1 cupcake means I did not like the book at all.  It takes a lot for me to really dislike a book, so there had to have been no redeeming qualities at all to save it.  Books that are badly written, gross, filled with excessive profanity or graphic sex/violence, perverted... all of those would probably fit here.  
• 2 Cupcakes (Just okay)  -  A book that's just okay is a book that I didn't really enjoy, but I also didn't hate it either.  It just didn't engage me in anyway.  Also, if a book has a lot of problems like non-existent plots, stereotypical or flat characters, and awful dialogue, it's only going to get two stars.
• 3 Cupcakes (I liked it)  -  So this is for a book that I did enjoy; it had good entertainment value.  But it still has a few problems.  Sometimes a book can be enjoyable, while still having a problem here or there with bad character development or flat writing.
• 4 Cupcakes (I really liked it)  -  A book with 4 cupcakes has great writing, no technical flaws, and great entertainment value.  It's something that I really enjoyed reading and would recommend to anyone.
• 5 Cupcakes  (I loved it)  -  A book that meets all the requirements of 4-cupcake rating but also has that extra something that made me fall in love with it.  It's a book that I couldn't put down, that I was willing to lose sleep over, that I will read again and again and again.
• DNF/No cupcake  -  This is for a book that I did not finish (DNF) for whatever reason, whether it was too boring, too perverse, too badly written... you get the idea.