[texasnightowl]

I've finally got my Calibre layout essentially how I want it with custom fields that work for me and metadata on all my existing books, etc.

So now I'm getting around to doing something I've been putting off...assigning ratings to books. Now, I use the Ratings field in 2 ways...when combined with a "Read" status, it means obviously how I rate the book. When combined with an "Unread" status, it indicates my interest in reading that book (a 4 or 5 * for example means it is high on my priority list).

That said, I just went thru a batch of 300 titles that I've read to assign their ratings. It first surprised me, but now doesn't that the bulk of my reading ends up with a middle of the road 3 star rating. 5 is rare, 4 is more common, 3 is the majority, then 2 is less common and 1 is again rare/unusual. But I suppose this is actually probably normal. It also surprised me that books I thought maybe I would give a 4 to were often downgraded to a 3 when compared to other books I was rating. But again, I bet that is pretty common.

Here's my rough description of how I define my star ratings:
5 - something I loved or something that strongly impacted me; a book that I know I will go back to time and again (I am a re-reader).
4 - something that was very good but didn't quite have the impact of a 5* book; most likely will re-read
3 - middle of the road; not good but not poor; probably liked some things about it and disliked others; probably will never go back to it
2 - a book I didn't like but not worthy of a 1*
1 - for those "how in the world was this ever published and why did I waste my time" books

And another question...besides Read or Unread, what other status' does everyone else use. Right now I'm using Read, Unread, Library, and z.Freebie. Library for those books that I may or may not ever read or aren't "reading" type books...like cookbooks or some Classical novels and literature. z.Freebie is for some of the items I downloaded from Amazon that I only downloaded because they were free. I have these states in their own custom field so that it is easier to set up saved searches to exclude the Library and z.Freebie books, etc. when I'm trying to decide what next to read.