But when the last page of the great book is read and I go to mark the book as read on Goodreads (because otherwise how do you know you finished a book or read it in the first place) I always hesitate to assign that star rating. I mean, if I loved the book it's not so hard to give it 5 stars or even 4 stars but what if I didn't love it? What if it was just okay? Or it felt like trudging through a swamp? Who am I to assign 1 star to Little Women? (Please don't send me angry messages.) I'm not a student of literature. To be honest my literature classes were some of my least favorite in college and I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than listen to an hour of in depth literary discussion on symbolism and metaphors and all that. What right do I have to label an important or classic book 1 star or 5 stars?
Luckily I had a long drive ahead of me and is there really a better time to mull over issues than a 400 mile drive? Especially when you're by yourself. Here's what I came up with: While I really can't assign literary value or rate lasting power of a particular book, my reading experience is just as valuable as anyone else's. So when I rate a book (not just a classic) I'm rating my reading experience and I'm talking about my opinion of what I liked and disliked.
There was quite a lot about it that I enjoyed. Some of the adventures Huckleberry and Jim get themselves into are very entertaining and I wanted to know just how they were going to get themselves out of a few scrapes. But there was a lot I didn't love. For starters it just felt too long. I was entertained at first by the King and the Duke but after awhile I just didn't care any more and that seemed to be the way many of the adventures went. As well the language made me really uncomfortable. While the racial slurs may have been okay in 1880 they were a bit startling in 2017 and there were a LOT of them. As well I think with the different strong dialects that the characters speak in an audio book is the way to go. I'm not sure I'd have been able to wade through Jim and Huck's conversations if I was trying to read it!
Which brings me back to my original question - how do you rate a classic? While I can definitely understand the literary and culture value of this book I can't say I fully enjoyed this reading experience. However, parts were entertaining and I found the issues raised about race relations in the pre-Civil War South interesting and thought provoking. So overall I when it came time to fill in the stars on Goodreads I went with 3.
How do you rate classics?
How do you rate classics?
I'll confess that I'm not much of a classics reader. I've never made a concerted effort to read classics, unless they were mystery classics. That being said, I agree that your experience is your experience. No one likes every book they read. No book satisfies 100% of the people who read it. Books that I love dearly don't necessarily speak to others as strongly or at all. And even the classics were once just 'contemporary books'. Rate the book how you please. Justify it or don't. And you don't have to assign a star rating. I just entered a jillion books on Goodreads (in order to have an electronic sortable record of my book notebooks) and I assigned no ratings prior to this year. It's all good, whatever you decide. You're reading. That's the important thing. :-)
ReplyDeleteI rate classics like I rate any other book, based on personal reaction and experience. That's really all I feel qualified to do - who am I to judge a work's "literary merit?" Others may agree or not...
ReplyDeleteI am not much of a classic reader these days but in my teens I was. I loved Mark Twain.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered the same thing. How on earth do I review (or rate) a classic? But I think you're right- they're stories (albeit famous ones) and each person's view is as important as anyone else's, and we're just recording out experience with the book. That's a good way to look at it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Huck Finn, I clearly remember Tom Sawyer (and liking it, warts and all) and I thought I read some or all of Huck Finn too, but I don't think I have on further reflection. I think I was always going to after Tom, but never did? I don't know, I was a kid. I just think I liked the idea of a raft ! And the racial stuff would be hard to get through, absolutely.
I think JoAnn's comment pretty much sums up how I feel about rating a classic. That makes sense.
I too, don't care for Little Women. You're not the only one! As for rating classics, I' with you...all I can do is look at how much I personally liked it, no matter how "important" it is.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read classics I read books I think I will like and then they usually get 4 or 5 stars from me. I have read 15 Anthony Trollope books in the past 2 years and they all get 4 or 5 stars; love the writing and the plots.
ReplyDeleteI liked Little Women when I was a girl and haven't revisited it. Not sure if I'd like it as much. I really don't make a point of reading classics anymore. I used to read Gatsby every summer but that's it - and I haven't read it in the past five years. I think it's admirable that you're reading them. Sometimes I have anxiety about rating on GR - it's so subjective.
ReplyDeleteI don't really read classics. I sometimes try but almost always put them aside to go back to later (ok..never). I think I would rate them according to my enjoyment of the story but it is hard to give a poor rating to a classic. I couldn't finish P&P. Everyone loves P&P so I don't know what my problem is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thought process. I think when we rate books, we are just rating them on our reading experience. That's all we've got, it's our opinion. So it doesn't matter to me if it's a classic or this summers blockbuster, I just go with a gut feel that reflects my enjoyment of the book.
ReplyDeleteI've loved Little Women since I was a child, but I've often wondered how I'd feel about books I've already formed an attachment with, if I was reading for the first time as an adult. It might be very different. When you already love characters and stories mean so much to you, it's impossible to view them objectively.
Interesting question. I read many of the classics as a child/in my youth, so nostalgia would make me give them 4/5 stars, but perhaps I would feel very differently if I read them today for the first time (or even reread them in some cases, as they don't all hold up that well to a rereading). But I think all we can do as readers is rate books on our enjoyment of them, rather than their literary merit.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kay and JoAnn, you rate any book on your personal experience and how much you loved it or didn't. Speaking of classics, I am in your camp regarding Little Women. I didn't like it very much. Just not my cuppa tea. I don't know if you ever saw my review of Eat, Love Pray but I assure you, I am not on that bandwagon of adulation that some have for this book. Hated it! So, to each his own.
ReplyDeleteI am currently reading The Secret Garden and like it very much.
Rate it however you want. It's a classic and has withstood the test of time.
ReplyDeleteWe all have different opinions on books. Rate what you like. It's your own personal reading experience.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I don't read the classics much anymore, very little in last decade or so. I guess I'm always chasing the newest, shiny title instead... but in answer to your question, yes, your review is your original thoughts and the rating is based on your own reading experience only.
ReplyDeleteI would put down at beginning of my review on a classic something like: "only 2 stars for my enjoyment of reading this book, but not the author's writing skill".
I don't know, just my take on it. Enjoy your books!
I rarely read a classic, mainly because I think I won't like it! I guess the closest to a classic I have read is Anne of Green Gables! As I star on how I experienced the book then I'd do the same for whatever book I'd read. Love your discussion of this.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a problem trying to figure out how to explain what I consider a star rating should be. I keep seeing over and over again how reviews are "subjective", but how much, and should they be? Then I saw an explaination on a bad review, the reviewer gave a SciFi book one star because she doesn't like space station or spaceship settings. She said her rating wasn't a "quality based" rating because the book was well written. But that is what a star rating is! If a book is well written and it isn't inappripriate for it's classification, and it doesn't promote hate, or misappropriate anything, it can't be one star because it wasn't your "taste". Sure, ratings are somewhat subjective, but not minus two to three stars subjective. I would say one star degrade is the max for personal taste problems. I try to keeo mine to zero or .5 deduction. Say what ever you want in a review, but to me the star rating should be how well the book is written and how well it functions within it's genre (and era). I saw a reviewer give The Scarlet Letter one star because of the Old English language used and she didn't like reading it, I wanted to scream, "That's how they spoke back then!" :/
ReplyDeleteI have always had a problem trying to figure out how to explain what I consider a star rating should be. I keep seeing over and over again how reviews are "subjective", but how much, and should they be? Then I saw an explaination on a bad review, the reviewer gave a SciFi book one star because she doesn't like space station or spaceship settings. She said her rating wasn't a "quality based" rating because the book was well written. But that is what a star rating is! If a book is well written and it isn't inappripriate for it's classification, and it doesn't promote hate, or misappropriate anything, it can't be one star because it wasn't your "taste". Sure, ratings are somewhat subjective, but not minus two to three stars subjective. I would say one star degrade is the max for personal taste problems. I try to keeo mine to zero or .5 deduction. Say what ever you want in a review, but to me the star rating should be how well the book is written and how well it functions within it's genre (and era). I saw a reviewer give The Scarlet Letter one star because of the Old English language used and she didn't like reading it, I wanted to scream, "That's how they spoke back then!" :/
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent article where you raise a number of excellent points. For starters, I sympathise with your reaction regarding Huckleberry Finn - I read it in my teens and LOATHED it by the end as I thought it was very patronising. But I was aware, even then, that it was an accepted view that people of colour, the lower classes and women were inferior to white, well-born men.
ReplyDeleteSo do you boycott such books? Or read them knowing that they will contain views and attitudes that make us wince now? And I also understand your reluctance to star-rate an accepted classic.
Thank you for raising these issues - there are no hard and fast rules, but it is enormous help for us to be aware of them when we read and review established classics.
I read classics every so often and I rate them like I would other books I read. I admit, I didn't Great Gatsby a 1 stars (gasp), it just wasn't for me. I do understand your view, things that were acceptable back then are not today. I liked reading this... gives me something to think about when I read a classic again.
ReplyDeleteMy dad read us Twain when I was growing up, he was my original audiobook, and did all of the voices fabulously. There was no whitewashing - he read it as it was originally written. Then he talked to us about why Twain wrote some of the things that he wrote. Because even though he wasn't an literature teacher, he was a teacher and that's how he is about everything to this day. It really did help form my opinion about how I read classics. But it doesn't mean I like all of them or "get" all of them. And I'm okay with that. In fact, I've finally given myself permission to just skip the ones that it really sounds like are too much work to understand or are just plain work with little chance of enjoyment (The Canterbury Tale, I'm looking at you). So I while I might even "get" why everyone raves about a book, I give myself permission not to like it, either. And I rate it accordingly. Those stars on Goodreads are, after all, YOUR opinion, and you have a right to it.
ReplyDeleteThe Woman in White is totally a favorite of mine too :) and Little Women failed to impress me. I DNF once a year, and yearly I read about 70-100 books. I DNFed Little Women. Should tell you how much I 'loved it'. Luckily, I was reading it with a book club, so at least they told me how it all ended.
ReplyDeleteI do get what you mean about rating classics. For me, it's especially true for modern classics - books people are passionate about not just in terms of "oh, so this has got a Nobel prize and is taught at every school". I gave a bad review to the Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Boy did that feel bad :D
But still, I normally just rate by enjoyment. I mean, when it comes to star ratings, we are no professors, right? Everyone knows that a start rating is YOUR opinion. We do not claim that we're some professional, do we? We just give our opinion, and everyone knows it's about our opinion. So it's alright even if I give 1 star to Charles Dickens, which I pretty much always will, because I'm just beyond understanding the man's stories. Heheh :D