Wednesday, March 03, 2010
When one star is good enough.
When we watch a film on television, Gail and I have a 15 minute ruling. If we do not like the film within the first 15 minutes, then we switch channels and watch another programme. When I review a book that I have read, I will award it between one and five stars on the book army website. One star means rubbish, two stars mean poor, three stars mean okay, four stars mean good and five stars mean excellent. So, you may ask, if I will only give a film 15 minutes to prove itself, then why will I read a book that I rate as only one star to the very end?
Ah! The difference is that books are my drug of choice. I will always reserve my opinion on any particular book until I read the final word. Privately I will develop an opinion within the first 5% of a book as to whether that book exceeds my quality threshold. If a book fails my quality threshold, then I will continue to the end because I will always enjoy my daily fix of reading a book. At the end of a book I will be sure of how many stars I will award it. I will still enjoy reading books that I finally award just one or two stars, because book reading is my thing. On average, three quarters of the books I read exceed my quality threshold but I am never put off by the quarter that disappoint me. Even poor books are good to read because they give me my daily fix and I will always have the hope that the next book will be better. Films however, will always have just 15 minutes to tie me in, I just do not have the patience to watch rubbish like a fish swimming around a bowl.
When we watch a film on television, Gail and I have a 15 minute ruling. If we do not like the film within the first 15 minutes, then we switch channels and watch another programme. When I review a book that I have read, I will award it between one and five stars on the book army website. One star means rubbish, two stars mean poor, three stars mean okay, four stars mean good and five stars mean excellent. So, you may ask, if I will only give a film 15 minutes to prove itself, then why will I read a book that I rate as only one star to the very end?
Ah! The difference is that books are my drug of choice. I will always reserve my opinion on any particular book until I read the final word. Privately I will develop an opinion within the first 5% of a book as to whether that book exceeds my quality threshold. If a book fails my quality threshold, then I will continue to the end because I will always enjoy my daily fix of reading a book. At the end of a book I will be sure of how many stars I will award it. I will still enjoy reading books that I finally award just one or two stars, because book reading is my thing. On average, three quarters of the books I read exceed my quality threshold but I am never put off by the quarter that disappoint me. Even poor books are good to read because they give me my daily fix and I will always have the hope that the next book will be better. Films however, will always have just 15 minutes to tie me in, I just do not have the patience to watch rubbish like a fish swimming around a bowl.
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