The Unsatisfactory EGM
I have had a very difficult time coming up with an objective way to subjectively rate books I have read for many years. I recognize that rating a book, particularly fiction, is unadulteratedly a subjective exercise. A book that I absolutely adore is going to be seen as little better than trash by someone else and vice versa.
However, I also felt that just using the EGM (Enjoyment or Emotional Gut-based Method) right after reading it resulted in a lot of books getting ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings from me. Books that should have probably received ⭐️⭐️⭐️ or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ were being unfairly lumped in up with the truly greats.
The EGM has now caused problems as my tastes aged and changed, as well as my ever deepening appreciation and understanding of what were actually just good books and what were outstanding books. That gut of mine previously rated a book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ but that one is no where near as good as this book I just read! They can’t both be 5s!
So for the past 2 days, I have fruitlessly scoured the Internet for guidance on how to create my own rating system. What categories are other readers using to base their ratings on? What criteria do others require for the individual stars they give?
Everywhere I turned, people explained how they broke down their EGM into the 5-star system. I need a bit more guidance than that. I need a set of categories or checklists so I know I’m being uniform in my assessments.
Enter Book Roast and CAWPILE
Tonight I stumbled across a video by BookTuber Book Roast from November 2017 by tripping over and explanation of the system by Cat @ Pages & Plots. She went through the system she created where she broke down everything that went into it as well as why she felt the need to come up with one in the first place.
I saw afterwards that in January of this year, G refilmed the CAWPILE video and added a spreadsheet freebie to help those of us who want to give it a whirl dive in and easily get started using the system. The link to her video and her shared Google Sheet in its description can be found HERE.
As G explained her reasons, I felt that here was someone who completely understood how I felt about rating books. As far as I am concerned, I should be consistent with my ratings from book to book. To be consistent, I need a formula.
If I had come up with my own, trial and error would have taken me until 2022 to get something that works for me every time. Some of the categories I might use, such as world building and to an extent character building, do not necessarily work when reading nonfiction.
I needed a system that could help me rate from a consistent position any book I read. Which is why G’s CAWPILE is absolutely perfect for me to use and I cannot wait to start using it. Regulating my method of evaluating a book’s reading value to me is the only way I can share with others who are of like mind. This is why ratings exist in the first place!
Go check out the video if you’re interested in rating books you’ve read with a more in-depth reasoning!
Until next time,
Keep reading!
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