Membreepheminine

My book ranks:

★★★★★ A++. Flawless. This is the untold rank: always out of reach, though it draw ever near, for who am I to deem flawlessness?

★★★★½ A+. Nigh flawless. Seldom bestowed upon make-believe, and even seldomer upon true-life, this rank marks my own ‘best of the best of the best’.

★★★★ A. Outstanding. An A-rank work is a byspale of its craft and one I’d wholeheartedly put forth to others. I’m likely to read or look to an A-rank work over and over again. Many of my dearest works get four-star rankings.

★★★½ A–. Full good. A work with only the fewest of flaws, either craftly or weenly, lessening slightly its winsomeness or helpfulness, but otherwise befitting an A rank.

★★★ B. Good. Maybe there are some small craftly flaws that are too hard to overlook, or it didn’t seem to me to live up to its full weenly wherewith. For me, a book of this rank is one I’d yet put forth and maybe even read more than once. I don’t give out nearly as many three-star ranks as many folks seem to. That’s just the way it is, I reckon.

★★½ C+. Above middling. A mostly middling work with a little something that sets it off from others of its kind.

★★ C. Middling. For me, a two-star work is yet worthy, having all the hallmarks I hope for in a work that has been given forth, meaning it is well crafted and mostly free of flaws. A book may not stand out to me, or it may not be my thing, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s poorly written; that said, I am pickier about putting forth two-star works.

★½ C–. Below middling. A work of this ranking has flaws markable enough to take away from the overall brooking of the work. A book with a C– rank may lack thorough beworking or bear mistakes of framework. I’ll often slog through a C– book in hopes of finding some little athelstones worthy of the work I put in.

★ D. Poor. At this rank, a work has too many flaws to make it worthwhile. Unless it’s something I’m poring over or otherwise brooking for learning, I’m unlikely to get through it. A work of such poor craft should never have been given forth; did its maker even care at all?

½ F. A full swither. Almost as seldom as a four-star rank, the half-star is for me the mark of a work that should be shunned. It may be so full of flaws it can’t be fathomed, but it’s more likely I found it hurtful, and maybe willfully so. Hateful and narrow-minded rants, whether dressed up in make-believe or not, are often given this rank.

— U. Unranked. A work might go unranked for any sake. A flick I haven’t yet watched, a book I read too long ago to call to mind, a lesser look-up work I don’t often look up things in at all — these kinds of works lack any stars.

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Booklore guidelines:

0. Form & medium. Source: the work itself.
 ⤷a. form
    → data, image, movement, multiple, music, object, other, program, sounds, speech, text
 ⤷b. qualification
    → cartographic, notated, performed
    → moving, still
    → 2D, 3D
    → aural, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, visual
 ⤷c. medium
    → audio, electronic, microform, microscopic, multiple, other, projected, stereographic, unmediated, video

    « Text (visual) : print. ↵ »

1. Title & author. Source: title page, frame, etc.
 ⤷a. full title
    • transcribed as exactly as possible, except that only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized
 ⤷b. author(s)
    • transcribed as exactly as possible, with surname in small caps
    → for 2 authors: combine with ‘&’.
    → for 3+ authors: use et al.

    « Alice I have been : a novel // Melanie Bᴇɴᴊᴀᴍɪɴ. — »

2. Publication. Source: title page, frame, etc.; copyright page
 ⤷a. place of publication
 ⤷b. full name of publisher and imprint
 ⤷c. date of first publication of current edition

    « New York, NY : Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks, 2011, © 2010 »

3. Edition & pressing. Source: title page, frame, etc.; copyright page
 ⤷a. edition, as given
 ⤷b. pressing
 ⤷c. press location
 ⤷d. name of printer
 ⤷e. date of pressing

    « (Trade paperback ed., 7th pr., US). — »

4. Series. Source: title page, frame, etc.

    « (Random House Reader’s Circle). — »

5. Material description. Source: the work itself.
 ⤷a. units
 ⤷b. composition
 ⤷c. extent
    • include unnumbered end pages (NOT end papers)
    • book sizes are from ALA
 ⤷d. maximum dimensions
 ⤷e. binding
  ⤷ Accompanying materials can be embedded here.

    « 1 vol. (paper), viii, 390 p. : ill. (b&w), 4 photos ; 8vo : 20.3 × 13.3 × 2.2 cm (8″ × 5⅜″ × ⅞″). | Soft cover (paper) : ill. (col) ; same dimensions. | 21 cm, perfect bound. — »

6. Resource identifier & terms of availability. Source: any.
 ⤷a. ISBN or other identifier
 ⤷b. qualification
 ⤷c. terms of availability
    • usually the cover price
    • ᴏᴏᴘ = out of print
 ⤷d. qualification

    « ɪsʙɴ 978–0–385–34414–2 : ᴜsᴅ 16.00. ↵ »

7. Notes. Source: any.
 ⤷a. general notes; notes about form & medium
 ⤷b. notes about use or audience
 ⤷c. notes about title
 ⤷d. notes about scope, purpose, or language
 ⤷e. notes about author(s)
 ⤷f. notes about edition & bibliographic history
 ⤷g. notes about publication & distribution
 ⤷h. notes about material description
    → other physical forms available
 ⤷i. notes about series
 ⤷j. notes about serial and other numbers

    « Historical novel ; text in English. — Real name of author: Melanie Hᴀᴜsᴇʀ. — Cover design by Lynn Bᴜᴄᴋʟᴇʏ. — Originally published: New York, NY : Delacorte Press, 2010. — Also in hardcover, audio, and electronic formats. ↵ »

8. Contents. Source: table of contents; the work itself.

    « Prologue + 18 ch ; Reader’s guide (p. 347–365) ; also includes excerpt of The Autobiography of Tom Thumb, by the same author. ↵ »

9. Summary. Source: cover or jacket; any.

    « Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever. [From the back cover.] ↵ »

10. Condition and notes about the copy at hand. Source: the work itself.
 ⤷a. condition
    → AS NEW(NEW) = 100% value
    → FINE (F) = 90% value
    → NEAR-FINE (NF) = 75% value
    → VERY GOOD PLUS (VG+) = 66% value
    → VERY GOOD (VG) = 50% value
    → VERY GOOD MINUS (VG−) = 33% value
    → GOOD (G) = 25% value
    → FAIR (FAIR) = 10% value
    → POOR (P) = 5% value
 ⤷b. description
    • progresses from outside to inside
 ⤷c. est. value

    « ᴠɢ : light corner fraying & edge wear to cover and outer text block. — ᴜsᴅ 8.00. »