My ratings are not intended to be objective, universal ratings of overall quality. They're just a reflection of my personal enjoyment: thumbs up or thumbs down.

I am cheating a bit by adding a second thumb for overall enthusiasm. One thumb means that the rating applies just to me and whether or not I enjoyed something. The second thumb means that I think the enjoyment (or distaste) should be universal and that I'm proactively recommending for or against something.

• 👍 I liked it
• 👎 I didn't like it.
• 👍👍 You should read it.
• 👎👎 No one should read it.

Since I'll still post book reviews over on Goodreads, I'll need to map my ratings to Goodreads' star ratings. That breaks down like this. (Basically, the wishy-washy three star review is out.)

• 👍👍 = ★★★★★
• 👍 = ★★★★
• 👎 = ★★
• 👎👎 = ★

Old Rating System (for reference only)

(Read about how I developed my rating system.)

Here’s how I’d put my own rating system. It's a 5 star system, with an option for a sixth star for things that really blow the lid off of what I expect. I'll give those extra special items a rating of "6 out of 5 stars".

Objective Rating:

• 6 Stars: Defines an entire class of entertainment.
• 5 Stars: Breaks new ground in some fashion.
• 4 Stars: The people involved know what they're doing and have done it. A success.
• 3 Stars: Flawed, but still enjoyable.
• 2 Stars: A misfire. Major flaws preclude enjoying the work as a whole.
• 1 Stars: Egregiously misguided, even evil. Fire someone.

Personal Enjoyment Rating:

• Loads of Fun
• It Was Okay
• I Shouldn't Have Bothered

This is to mark books or movies that may have been objectively quite good but that I personally didn't enjoy for some reason. Instead of giving them a low rating, I'll just indicate whether my Personal Enjoyment was high or low.