The first book I've rated 5 Stars in over a year
This is why I devised my PEACH book rating system!
I read 96 fiction books in 2024 and I didn’t rate a single one of them 5 stars.
In my heart, I think some of them deserved 5 stars - but in using the CAWPILE fiction rating system, I found that my interpretation of that system encouraged me to be far more critical of the books I read than I had been in the past. And sometimes, if you love a book, you just want to reward it, even if you’re fully aware it’s not technically perfect.
If you aren’t familiar - the CAWPILE rating system, devised by G of Book Roast - has a reviewer score the book out of 10 across seven categories which make up the CAWPILE acronym - characters, atmosphere, writing, plot, intrigue, logic and enjoyment. You calculate your total across those categories and divide it by 7 to get a CAWPILE score, which relates to a star rating based on the bracket that score falls into. It’s a solid system, and it works well for a lot of folks! I really enjoyed trying it, and my system wouldn’t exist without it! But after a year of use, I felt like it wasn’t quite right for me. That’s when I set about devising my own rating system.
And yeah, I named it after one of my cats.
Rating by Peaches?
My fiction rating system is called PEACH (after my fuzzy girl Peaches, pictured above). It draws heavily on the mechanics of the CAWPILE system in that it’s also an acronym, and you rate those categories for a total number, but it works quite differently too.
PEACH stands for plot, enjoyment, artistry, characters and heart. You score each of those areas out of 5, then divide the total by 5 to get your star rating.
A few people have pointed out to me that they think enjoyment and heart are too similar, but that’s actually intentional. Here’s why.
Heart VS Enjoyment
I agree that there’s overlap between my Enjoyment and Heart categories - but there’s also distinction.
Enjoyment is pretty self-explanatory - did you like it? Did you not? How much? But sometimes being entirely engrossed and riveted and engaged in a book surpasses enjoyment. Sometimes a book isn’t technically well-written, or perfectly paced, but it grabs you and it holds you and it makes you FEEL.
You can enjoy a book, but not feel like it shook your soul. You can enjoy a book but not feel especially seen by it. Sometimes you can’t even explain why a book wormed its way into your heart, but you stayed up all night to finish it and you’d do it again in a heartbeat. What makes a book special to me might mean nothing to you - and that’s really cool, in my opinion! Hunting for that book that makes you feel alive is part of the joy of reading!
A measure of that X-factor that sets a book apart is something I felt was missing from the CAWPILE system, and my ratings suffered as a result. Books I was obsessed with didn’t score highly enough.
That’s what my Heart category is for. It’s not just about enjoyment; it’s also about connection and feeling and representation. Sometimes I read a book and I think “Wow. I see so much of myself in this character.” Sometimes I love a book, but I know I’ll never reread it. It’s going to score lower in Heart than a book I know I’ll be making a point of revisiting. As someone who doesn’t reread much, that’s a big deal for me! Sometimes love a book and I can’t wait for a friend to read it, so we can yap about our favourite parts - and sometimes I don’t want to talk about it with anyone, because it feels like a secret the author shared especially with me.
So how does it rate?
Of course, if you’re likely to rate a book highly on heart, you’re also likely to rate it highly on enjoyment. That’s on purpose - if I heart-loved a book, I want it to score high.
The Enjoyment category in the CAWPILE system didn’t hold enough influence over the final score to result in a rating that I felt matched what my gut told me about the book, given that it only counted for seven points out the total 70 maximum points possible. For instance, I can find a book earth-shattering that has incredible characters, but not much plot. Of course I’m not going to rate it highly on plot if it didn’t have much going on, but it was still earth-shattering to me! I want it to get lots of stars! I often found myself having to re-score books with CAWPILE to get closer to the rating I wanted for the book.
The overlap of the Enjoyment and Heart categories was a very deliberate decision - it gives me the opportunity to almost double-weight the importance of enjoying the book, while still allowing some extra room for nuance.
That said, it’s totally valid to not use a rating system at all. Rating books by vibes, or not rating them at all, is not worse or better than using a metric like PEACH or CAWPILE - it is faster though, probably! So if you’re reading this going “wow, sounds like a lot of fuss for nothing - I just rate on the vibes” I am so on board! I did that for a while too! I just like data and qualifiers, so rating to a metric is fun for me!
I also just don’t love maths.
The CAWPILE system being based around the number 7 had me keeping a reference in the front of my reading journal that I had to flick back to every time I reviewed a book. It wasn’t a huge chore, but I wanted to simplify by keeping the numbers in the realm of 5, since ultimately we’re rating out of 5. Each category gets a rating out of five, which you add together for a maximum total of 25, and divide by 5 to get your star rating. This way, each category is essentially responsible for its own star in the final rating.
I’ve also heard a few folks have tweaked the PEACH system to rate each category out of 10 rather than 5, so when they have their rating out of 50 they just have to move the decimal point to find their star rating. I love that! If it works better for you that way, please do! I find myself getting more and more critical if I have a higher number to rate from, and I’m trying to avoid that, so I’ll be sticking to 5 for now but I fully encourage you to adapt this system to make it work for you!
PEACH/MITSU Rating Sticker Printables
For those who are keen to try my rating system in their own journals - check out my last post! I’ve made printable rating stickers and explanation pages you can add to your reading journal. If you’ve subscribed recently by email, there should be a link to these in your welcome email too. MITSU is the rating system I devised for non-fiction, but I don’t read a lot of non-fiction so please help me make it better if you have ideas!
These were originally supposed to be a newsletter signup perk, but I messed up the welcome email and didn’t realise for a couple of weeks, so if you aren’t subscribed and you’re reading this and you want to download the printables, please consider subscribing for more fortnightly newsletters like this one.
Recent Videos
I’m just back from a week and a half off working, which has been SO refreshing! I don’t have any hot-off-the-press videos for you - but here’s a little peek at what I got up to earlier in February.
March Bullet Journal Setup
My March bullet journal said “celestial but make it vintage”. The silvery moons are my favourite part! Let’s set it up together.
Quirky Cup Collective Reading Journal Review
I took the Quirky Cup Collective’s Wisteria reading journal for a thorough road test. If DIY reading journaling isn’t for you but you like the idea of a notebook for your book thoughts, let’s find out if this one’s the right fit for you.
What I’ve Been Reading
The magical book that broke my 5-star dry spell
I just finished reading B.K. Borison’s First Time Caller. I knew I was going to love it - there’s something about her writing style that entirely entrances me - but I didn’t know I was going to fall into it, drown in it, and be tempted to re-read it the moment I put it down. Friends, I DON’T DO THAT. This book is special. This book is 5-points-for-enjoyment, 5-points-for-heart special - to me. It’s a contemporary romance, and I expect you’ll also love it if you love Sleepless in Seattle, or dual-POV pining, or complex characters with hearts of gold.
I’m also currently reading the second book in India Holton’s Dangerous Damsels series, the League of Gentlewomen Witches. It’s the most glorious convergence of historical romance and fantasy, with regency era witches and pirates stealing and plundering and flying houses around, while trying to maintain their propriety and manners. These books are hilarious and extremely self-aware - the humour is giving Terry Pratchett writing Jane Austen.
Book Club: Page Mages March Book
Our March book for the Page Mages Book Club is Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley. We’ll be discussing this one at the end of March, so it’s not too late to join in! To join the discussion on Discord, you’ll need to be a paid member of my Youtube channel. You can find out more here.
I’ll also be getting started on the setup for my next Mystery Journal giveaway in March, and I’m planning to get LOTS of help from my Jubilant Journals and higher channel members for that too - stay tuned!
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