After writng this blog for over four years I’ve decided to give ratings to the books I read based on the Goodreads system:

1. I didn’t like it or didn’t finish it – there won’t be many of these as I’m quite picky about what I read.
2. It was OK – I thought it was nothing special, but not bad.
3. I  liked it – not at all a bad rating but generally not a book that had me rushing to finish it. Still a good, enjoyable book.
4.  It was very good – I really liked it and wanted to get back to it each time I had to stop reading.
5. It was excellent – or as Goodreads describes it ‘it was amazing’ – often a brilliant combination of plot, characters and description with a great sense of location. I like books that make me think or introduce me to new ideas or a new way of looking at things, so these will get a 5.

And then because often books will not not quite fit into one of five categories some will have a .5 rating, which I round up to a whole figure on Goodreads.