Notes on Grades

At the end of each review, I give each book two letter grades. The first is the enjoyment rating. This represents my personal take on the book. It is a holistic blend of my own preferences, both in terms of genre/subject matter and in terms of writing style.

The second is called the execution grade. It's designed to represent how "objectively" good I feel the book is. Things like the quality of the prose, the pacing, and the overall structure of the book are what I consider in this grade.

Grades:

A: Corresponds to exceptional books. These would be books that I would reread, or that I would feel comfortable recommending to anyone.

B: Good to great books. This probably represents the largest category of my reading. A "B" grade of execution would be a book that I think would have largely positive reviews, though not as many rave reviews. I would feel comfortable recommending this to any fans of the genre this book sits in, along with people where it might be a stretch preference-wise.

C: Average to below average books. This doesn't mean "bad." I would recommend a "C" grade of execution book to people within their preferred the genre/subject matter. I wouldn't usually recommend it otherwise.

D: These are books I don't think are great. They're probably not books I'd recommend to most readers, regardless of genre.

I'd expect 5-10% of books to receive an execution grade of A, 30-40% a B, 30-40% a C, and 5-10% a D. Enjoyment ratings will skew a little higher because I tend to pick books I think I will enjoy.