I review books based on three factors, Accessibility, Fun and Reliability. And I realized it might not be obvious to everyone what these stand for, so here is a quick explanation!
How I Review Accessibility
Accessibility to me, is about how easily the text is to follow. If you’ve never ever read about this topic before will you understand whats going on? But also how hard is the language? How high is the bar for understanding? 5 stars here, then means that the text is super easy to read and follow. You won’t have to know anything about the topic at all. 4 stars means, the text is not as easily read, and you need to know a little. 3 stars, the text is okay to read, and you need to know something to be able to follow the text easily. 2 stars the text is not for beginners in this topic, it is a harder read and you will have a harder time following along without any knowledge. 1 star, this book is for experts on this topic, nothing is explained, and the text is exceptionally hard to read.
Of course, this is just a guide. Sometimes the text is super hard to read, but easy to understand because everything is explained really well. So, take this as a guide and read the review, where I will explain the reason for the rating.
How I Review Fun
This is probably the most subjective of the ratings (not that anyone can ever be entirely objective!). This rating is about, how fun the book is to read. Is it enjoyable? Is the writing interesting or do you just want to do anything else, but read this book? The subjectivity of this rating also means that these examples are even more varying than the others as well. But here we go anyway! 5 stars means that this is just an amazing book to spend time with. It doesn’t feel like you spend any time reading it. It’s just a good book! 4 stars means, that by far the most of this book was super enjoyable. You might have noticed the time you spend reading, but you didn’t mind. 3 stars means, that this book is okay to read, there are time that are less enjoyable, but you still don’t regret reading it. 2 stars means that this book is starting to feel like work, its not enjoyable and you’re starting to question why you read this book. 1 star means that you don’t want to read this book. It is boring, it is badly written and omg why don’t they teach writing courses to historians!
How I Review Reliability
This is the most important rating, at least to me. Reliability means that you can trust what you are reading. Do other historians acknowledge this writer? Does she reference her sources? Are those sources any good? And so on. Mostly this rating is the one most likely to change. And this is because, the further we get from a book’s publication, the more likely it is that people will find issues with the text. Keep an eye on my Instagram for updates to my reviews and other writing. 5 stars here means, that every historian I could find agrees with the entirety of this book. The sources are on point and “my god how did they do that”? 4 stars means that there are some historians who disagree with some parts of this book, but it is minimal, and the sources are still on point. 3 stars means that there is discourse about this book. Historians can’t agree on whether this book is good or not, there are some questionable sources. 2 stars means, most historians don’t agree with this book and there is starting to be too many questionable sources here. 1 star means, don’t read this book! Most historians agree that this book is wrong in most, if not all, its conclusions. The sources are entirely missing, or they are all questionable. This is probably fake history or pseudo-science.
The Overall Look
These ratings are then put together form an overall rating, which shows whether or not I would recommend this book, based on these three ratings. This one works mostly the same as other book reviews. I will probably recommend the book if it has three or more stars. But even I have to acknowledge that shitty history is sometimes super entertaining, which is why I have decided to use this method. This way, you can see if a book is reliable or not and go into everything with open eyes. You will know a book is super entertaining, but bad history. I hope this will help people to navigate between entertainment and fact.
If there is any book you wish for me to review, please leave a comment here or on my Instagram account!
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