There was a point in my life, around 2014, where I decided to get into the habit of reading. Since then, I've read hundreds of books. A lot of my friends, colleagues, and strangers I meet love to ask me about books I've read and recommendations. I thought it would be nice to leave my notes and thoughts and more here for them. A place to discover more about my journey, hopefully helping you find your next book to read.
How I rate
★☆☆☆☆
Don't recommend
Derivative or dishonest, or just plain bad writing. Don't waste your time.
★★☆☆☆
Readable, but offers little
Low literary value; mostly forgettable.
★★★☆☆
Recommended, with caveats
I enjoyed it, but I won't push it on you.
★★★★☆
Really recommend
I'd go out of my way to suggest it.
★★★★★
Recommend to almost everyone
Fundamentally different. Timeless.
A note on scoring
I hate scoring systems at times, so here's a rubric for how I think about it.
A 5/5 book should mean 100/100, and 4/5 means 80/100. I take that quite seriously, and the space between that can be brutal. So when I read something that feels like a 90/100, I round down, not up, to a 4/5.
The scale doesn't capture the nuance I wish it could, and I blame scoring systems like Goodreads which only allow whole-star ratings. Overall I still see myself as lenient.
How I review
All of my reviews are genuinely mine. I try to avoid summarizing the entire book, and rather capture what interests me. Some books I have a particularly bigger interest in and I can get carried away with writing a little more about it.
I have a backlog of reviews, so you can see my entire shelf of books I've read, or filter that down to just the books I've reviewed.
