Philosophy on Book Ratings

Summary
In this podcast episode, Jon and Kristy introduce their new podcast and discuss how they got started. They also talk about their rating system for books and their plans for future episodes.

Links
Turn the Page Bookstore, Westfield, IN: https://turnthepagewestfield.com/
Kristy's Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/kristypritzl
Jon's Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/jkpritzl

Takeaways

• This episode serves as an introduction to their new podcast.
• They discuss how they got started and what inspired them to create the podcast.
• They explain their rating system for books and how they determine their ratings.
• The plan for future episodes is to provide an overview of a book, have a spoiler-free discussion, and then dive into a more detailed conversation with spoilers.
• The first book they will be discussing is 'Fourth Wing' by Rebecca Yarros.

Chapters

• (00:40) - How we got here
• (01:51) - Jon's a streaky reader
• (04:41) - How we rate books
• (05:08) - 5 stars are not finite
• (06:19) - 5 stars =
• (07:42) - 4 stars
• (07:54) - What's an unreliable narrator?
• (09:45) - 3 stars
• (10:36) - 2 stars
• (11:27) - 1 star
• (11:46) - Jon's take on things
• (13:48) - A podcast plan
• (14:20) - First episode will be...

Creators & Guests

Host

Jon King-Pritzl

Host

Kristy King-Pritzl

What is Books I Make My Husband Read?

Join us for a hilarious and heartfelt journey as one book-loving wife curates an unexpected reading list for her husband. With each episode, dive into lively discussions, humorous debates, and surprising insights on the books she just has to make him read. It’s a book club with a twist—and you’re invited!

JP (00:00)
Welcome to our first podcast, the introduction of our first podcast.

Kristy (00:04)
Yes, welcome.

It's not an introductory podcast, it's a podcast that has an introductory episode. Yes. But it is our inaugural podcast. That would be accurate and correct. Yes.

JP (00:11)
Correct. Yes. Thanks.

that's a good word, especially given that it's an election year. That's a good word to use.

Kristy (00:19)
Yeah, yes. I think we want to avoid that topic though. Yes.

JP (00:23)
We do for sure at all costs.

Kristy (00:27)
think we should probably talk about how we got

JP (00:29)
That's probably a place to start.

Kristy (00:31)
And at the beginning, I know, right? I know we were telling this story last night to we were out with a couple of friends last night for dinner and we were telling them about our podcast and then we were getting ready to record our intro episode, which is right now. We were telling them kind of how we got here and what inspired the podcast. And I said that I had asked you to read the book, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things,

I was reading the little script we kind of outlined and it was Gone Girl. Gone Girl was the first one Yes. Which are two amazing books, but I'm pretty sure it Gone Girl. Who knows? It might've been another

Yeah, so I asked you read those books and then that's kind of been a theme when a book particularly resonates with me or maybe something in the book resonates with me in regards to our relationship, I've recommended it to you. So you've read quite a few books over the years and we've been married close to 12 years now that I recommended.

JP (01:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Which has been helpful. Like I'm a pretty streaky reader. So I go in waves where I'll read a lot and then I won't read anything for a while. but I think that's been reduced a bit, especially recently over the last couple of years, as we've done this a little bit more. One of the things for me, that's made me a streaky reader is just like, I don't really know what to read. tend to gravitate to one particular thing for a little while and then, just kind of fall off the cliff. So with you being a more avid reader,

and knowing me as well as you do, it's been helpful for me to like expand my reading palette even to different genres and different types of books that I would have no idea or wouldn't have picked up on my

Kristy (02:17)
And I think that is what also really resonated with us to do the podcast. So was visiting a local bookshop and I was admittedly eavesdropping on the conversation of a couple of the shop. I think one of them was the owner. really don't remember. think owner, worker, employee, and...

they were talking about their book club. And so I was laughing at some of their conversation because they were complaining about some of the people in their book club and some of their

I don't know what I want to say. Commentary, thank you. Was maybe some of the things that I might get a little...

JP (02:52)
commentary.

Kristy (03:00)
I could relate to it. I could relate to some of those things, which maybe we'll get into a little later, particularly with how people write books. Anyway, so I joined their conversation because I felt compelled to after eavesdropping, which I admitted to. And then I ended up talking to these ladies for an hour and a half.

I talked about this idea for this podcast and they absolutely loved it. And they said, have to do this podcast. More women want their partners to read books or read books that they're reading particularly. And so I think that just speaks to what you're saying. Like maybe you want to read, but you don't know what to read.

JP (03:43)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's just a good sharing moment for us to like reading so important to you and like having this for the two of us to talk about this and books that you're interested in. And we're just choosing to record and publish for the world to enjoy our, our banter.

Kristy (04:03)
and there'll be no shortage of that. So shout out to the ladies at Turn the Page Bookstore in Westfield, Indiana for encouraging us to really pull the plug on this podcast. I told them I would do that if it ever came to fruition. So hopefully this actually makes it into the ether somewhere.

JP (04:24)
We'll put their shop website on the in the show notes.

Kristy (04:27)
Good, good.

of the things we wanted to talk about was how I rate books. And you can find me on Goodreads, you can Google my name in Goodreads, I'm sure it'll pop up, but we'll also link this in the show notes. But I think it's important to talk about when I say something's four or five stars, three stars, what do I mean? What does that mean to me? Because everyone has their own rating system. And

JP (04:32)
Hmm.

Kristy (04:55)
think first things first is I have to get this off my chest. It's been weighing on there for many millennia now. There are not a finite number of five stars you can give books in a year. There's not. There's absolutely not. You can give every single book if you felt so inclined to five stars. Now, remember, most of the books I'm reading are four and higher.

JP (05:06)
There's not? Okay.

Kristy (05:18)
Those are books that I'm coming across through different means. Someone recommends them. I, on Goodreads, if you like a book, it recommends other books that are within the same genre or subject matter. And if something's 3.7, 3.8, I mean, I get a little nervous. That means that the majority of people thought it was a three or a four, which for me isn't great.

someone recommends a book to me that's 3.8, 3.7, I don't know, 3.9, maybe that's less risky, I'll read it for sure. But I won't read a book that's rated 3.7 on Goodreads without a recommendation, either by a friend or by a bookstagrammer, someone I've been following and trust. I like other books that they've read and rated.

But back to what makes a five -star book. So I think if I read a book, it kept me intrigued. I was excited to pick it up each time. I enjoyed the characters. I felt maybe the characters were relatable in some way. I didn't see any major plot holes. I laughed, I cried. I didn't really want the book to end. I'm gonna give it five stars. Like it doesn't have to be the best book I've ever read. It doesn't have to be the best book I've read that year or maybe that month.

You can't compare a 300 page rom -com to a 700 page epic fantasy. You just can't. They're totally different books. But it doesn't mean that that 300 page rom -com, which I would say is a little lighter in general in subject matter, is not five stars. Like is it five stars at being the book that it is? If you go into McDonald's, you're not going to compare it to a Capital Grille.

JP (06:42)
Right, totally different.

Kristy (07:02)
which is our, like, steakhouse of choice. But that doesn't mean that McDonald's is not a five -star McDonald's or a five -star fast food. Like, did you go in? Did they get your order right? Was the service friendly? Was the bathroom clean? Was the area clean? Like, did you have everything you needed?

JP (07:05)
Right, right.

Right. Makes sense.

Kristy (07:23)
So you have to rate books where they are and what kind of book they are. mean, Now four stars.

All right, so if there's a hole in the plot or something else that just didn't make sense, maybe I fell the author, I don't know, fell short someplace, I might give it four stars.

And another reason I might give four stars is if there's an unreliable narrator.

JP (07:45)
Wait, time out. I don't know what that means.

Kristy (07:48)
So an unreliable narrator to me is in the book you have your person who's telling the story, maybe it's from multiple point of views, but if there is a narrator that suddenly changes their character, their storyline, their personality, I don't like that. Because it makes me wonder

Okay, I mean like if we get halfway through a book, it's 200 pages through, was anything in those first 200 pages the truth?

JP (08:23)
I see. So meaning like you're following along with this character. They've made certain decisions along the way through the that's giving them an arc and all of sudden they make a completely one 80 decision from the pattern or path that they've already made up to that point. Is that kind of what you

Kristy (08:39)
mean, that could be it, or they just tell you stuff and they contradict themselves later on in the story. Now, there will be some authors that I have read that I think their intention is to use this as like a plot twist, but to me, it just doesn't create this throughput of the story. And I just, don't like that. Maybe that's a personal thing, but that's usually more what I reserve for three stars, I feel

JP (08:45)
Hmm, I see.

I see.

Kristy (09:05)
and unreliable in their area because that is just something that is just going to really turn me off from the book. but back to four stars is like, it's good. It's really good, probably. But there was just like a tiny piece kind of missing for me.

JP (09:20)
So the unreliable narrator isn't necessarily a four star. You would categorize that more as a three star.

Kristy (09:26)
Yeah. Yeah, it kind of depends on what we're talking about. But three stars would be, man, I want to like this book, but it's tough to read at times. I didn't feel as I didn't feel excited about picking it up. Definitely the unreliable narrators here.

JP (09:30)
Okay, I got you.

Kristy (09:44)
Characters that are unlikable, unrelent and I don't see you say unlikable because hey, there's always characters you just don't resonate with aren't likable, but they're just not relatable. Like no one's gonna do that. No one would say that. No one would act this way. the story's just not believable. And I don't mean sci -fi, like, cause yes, yes, like this, yeah. Or maybe there's just

JP (09:55)
Sure, okay.

like not realistic believable like in the context of the story.

Kristy (10:11)
Too many coincidences, like all these things would have had to happen for this one thing to be possible. So yeah, that would be three stars. Two stars, almost certain and someone's gonna probably fact check me on this is I've only given one book on Goodreads two stars. And I did that because it had, I think

JP (10:18)
I see.

Kristy (10:39)
one, at least one, maybe two, because it was written from multiple points of view, unreliable narrators. It had major plot holes and the characters were not it was just too coincidental. Like all these like things. I don't know. I just really did not care for

JP (10:57)
So really it's, it's a culmination of a lot of things that you've already kind of called out. Like if a book has one or two of these things, it's probably a four star. If it has three or four of these things, it's a three star. If it has a bunch of these things and it's like cumulatively.

Kristy (11:10)
Yeah, I mean, that might be a little generous, but yes. Yeah. Yeah. And then one star book I feel like probably shouldn't have been written.

JP (11:10)
Rated lower.

Kristy (11:20)
how many books have you seen on Goodreads that are one point something? I mean, two point something is even tough.

JP (11:23)
I don't know. Yeah, that's fair.

Kristy (11:27)
So that's what I mean. I only give one book two stars because most of the ones I'm reading like...

JP (11:32)
I get that's helpful. mean, it's helpful for people to understand as we move on through this podcast and understand like what we mean ratings. think I pretty much align with all of that. I'm probably not as granular in your thinking and each of reasons because I just don't read as much as you. So maybe I don't pick up on intricacies of a storyline or a plot or something to that effect that you might pick up on just based on

how much you

But yeah, I mean, to me, a five star is, I can't put it down. There are characters that I can relate to, or you you care about as characters in the world that they're in, and you just want to keep turning the page. And four stars is probably similar, but maybe there's a couple of characters or something that I just can't connect with.

And at a certain level and don't care for them as deeply or feel the impact of whatever happens to them in that particular I don't know what a three star would be for me, honestly. or even a two star I have. Like, again, because I'm not as avid of a reader, I would probably put something as a three star if I just don't feel like I can get through it.

For example, this one book I'm thinking of in particular, The Book Thief, I think it is, highly recommended and I think it's highly rated.

Kristy (12:52)
I've read that. It's very highly rated. I've read it, yeah.

JP (12:56)
but I picked it up right after I got done with like a Don Winslow series about drug cartels and the dichotomy between those two, storylines. just wasn't really in the head space. And so I couldn't, I just couldn't get through it. I think I got a third of the way through and I just put it down.

Kristy (13:07)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, The Book Thief is definitely like a slow burn. So you kind of have to...

JP (13:20)
commit. Yeah, that's fair. but I mean, I would want to read it again. I haven't picked it up since, but it's still lingers as one of those that I think I would like to finish.

Kristy (13:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, so I feel like we're on the same page with ratings.

JP (13:33)
Yeah, agreed.

Kristy (13:34)
So I think the plan for the podcast is to have a book. I'll give an overview of the book. We will do the overview with no spoilers. And then we will warn the audience if the rest of the content has spoilers in it. And then I think we'll have a discussion amongst the two of us about the book. And I'll ask you questions about the book.

JP (13:48)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, yeah. Cool. What's our first book that we're going to put out there for the world? Do we want to tease that out yet? Are we going to hold on to

Kristy (14:13)
No, I think we should throw it out into the universe.

JP (14:16)
Fourth wing by Rebecca Yarros, which I finished, I guess a couple months ago now, time has flown by, but I'm in halfway through the second one now. So everything's still really fresh in my head and I'm excited to talk about that one.

Kristy (14:19)
Yes, great book.

Yes.

And she just released the cover for the third one, which comes out I think in January, which will be here, you know, like

JP (14:39)
I know for

it'll be good Q and A and then just kind of organic from there, which we tend not to have too much trouble

Kristy (14:44)
Yes.

No. Yeah, and then after the interview, we'll probably tee up the next book and then do it all over again.

JP (14:57)
Yeah, I'm you said in the beginning, this is something we've talked about for quite a while. And so it's fun to see it come together. It's fun for something you and I to do together. And, who knows, you know, what might catch on, even if it's just the two ladies at the bookstore in Westfield that wind up listening to it and, our families, yeah. donation button is on the website. go fund me.

Kristy (15:14)
Or just our families. Yeah. Thank you, family. Go fund us. No, go fund us.

Alright, thanks for listening. Maybe this one will be the one your husband reads.

JP (15:29)
There we go. Sign off.

Kristy (15:33)
Take care then, bye bye now. See you.

JP (15:35)
Okay, bye -bye.