I just finished reading a book from the Science Fiction Book Club and intended to write a review here when I thought of quantifying my evaluations of books.

5. Book is a lifetime favorite. I have one or more copies of it on my bookshelf permanently. I've read it more than once and I recommend it to all my book-reading friends. Examples are The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Also The Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

4. Book is highly recommended. Though I won't keep it on my bookshelf taking up space, I do recommend it to my friends and I give away the copy I have. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and Holy Blood Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, et al., are examples of this category.

3. Book is OK for a single reading but I wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends, though I have included books in this category in my "swapping library" (we pass around books from one reader to another). Pot-boilers from famous authors come under this rubric.

2. Book is barely readable and was a waste of my time. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thacheray is one of these. Another one is the book I just finished, The Covenant Rising, by Stan Nicholls. I'll write its book review another time.

1. I couldn't finish it; it was too boring or poorly written. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, to name two.