PotsandPlots

In my previous review incarnations – most notably at Geekdad, I have avoided review ratings. For PotsandPlots, I wanted to try to use them and fit them into the gardening theme.

When reviewing early copies of books, if I don’t like something, I rarely review it. No author sets out to write a bad book, and who, when promoting their book, needs some dumbass with a keyboard claiming they “didn’t like the character arc resolution during the third act?” The fact of my reviewing a new book almost always means that I enjoyed the book.

Moving forward, I will most likely be reviewing books I’ve paid money for. This makes it more likely I’ll write a bad review, but even then, why spend time trashing something, when I could move on and lift up the next book I enjoyed instead? The point of book blogging is surely to be positive?

So, while most books you read about on PotsandPlots will be books I have enjoyed, at home, I do have an informal ranking system. This effectively boils down to, “Am I going to keep this or not?” As I have got older and my house (and bookshelves) more cluttered, I have had to be tougher about what books I keep. If something is going to stay in the house it has to be really, really good. I end up parting with a lot of books, that in other circumstances I might keep. This ruthlessness, I must confess, has meant that I have sent more than one book down the charity shop only to buy it again down the line, because I wished I’d kept it!

This gives me broadly 3 categories of books in my life, that I have now shoe-horned into 3 gardening categories, that if pushed I’d have to admit don’t really work!

🌻🌻🌻🌻 – Giant Redwood: This has been created after reading Angel Down by Daniel Kraus. I would imagine only one book in 5 or even 10 years could qualify for it. (But hey, we all know about grade creep, right? )

🌻🌻🌻 – Hardy Perennials: The books that I will keep forever.

🌻🌻 – Vibrant Annual. A book that I enjoyed but won’t last beyond the year. I might lend it to a friend, but ultimately it’s going out of the house in the next couple of months. These are not bad books. A garden needs it’s annuals, but they’re not going to be read again.

🌻 – Petrol Station Flowers. Books that won’t last another day in the house. Something that goes straight down the charity shop.

Most books, I read will fit into the 🌻🌻 category – fitting then because sunflowers are most definitely vibrant annuals – we’ll gloss over that 3 sunflowers are no more hardy or perennial than 2!

This is a first pass at a ranking system. No doubt it will change over time, but, for now, it will do!