(New Crobuzon, #2)
210712: actually maybe less than five- but i did read it in three sittings. seems to be quibbling to say i never liked our central protagonist(s) when there are fantastic images like this. and so what it is long. i have read enough books that length no longer intimidates...
and i have read enough/rated enough to comment on my own process of evaluation. when first beginning goodreads in 2010 i read a lot of books that were 'ok', that served as basis, history, for the genres that interested me, so the average rating was probably low threes. in time, over the years, there has been some average increase partly because i then had a better idea of what i wanted to read, partly through natural inflation, recognition that i must have at least 'liked' so many works to read them...
my editor told me a three counted as 'algorithmically negative' so soon i found myself giving out fours. i do not want to be negative. and so discovered more and more works i could honestly assess as four. in time, it became clear to me that virtually every book i wanted to read was somewhere between three and four and even rare fives. distinction came only according to which books it followed and their ratings, genre expectations met or subverted, surprise or disappointment, any engaging stylistic or meta textual aspects etc. most books are read 'according to' their genre and i rate them according to that, not to some hypothetical 'universal book'...
it is not difficult for me to rate work four: i really like to read, i read all the time, i have wide-ranging tastes. in nonfiction most work start off automatically four, after all i know what it is about, i know what i want to read. this is certainly the case in most all the philosophy i have read. fiction is another case. here i am guided by previous readings, reputations, word of mouth, recommendations, but all the same i can be pleasantly surprised or shocked and dismayed. on the other hand, i have come to rarely give out twos anymore because if the work is just 'ok', there are so many more i want to read...
as far as reviews go, i try to give reviews to anything i rate a five and sometimes a four. it surprises me i have written so many reviews, particularly philosophy, but however amateur they are quite sincere and product of a lot of independent thinking. i have not studied philosophy in years (decades...) but certainly have read a lot. i never wanted to be 'captured' by one or the other way of particular thinkers, but have in the eventual been drawn to continental thinkers and more recently to Indic thought...
of the now 5 001 books of all sorts read, this includes not only the non-fiction (philosophy, art, literature), the graphic (novels, art, comics), and the fiction (novels, poetry, plays) with some overlap, but mostly 1 356 nonfiction, 3 645 fiction...
Comments