Hey bookworms, you can call me Veros (She/Her). You can also call me booklover, metalhead, board game enthusiast, and craft dabbler.
My most read genres are fantasy and sci-fi but I also love a good mystery and the occasional historical fiction. I’ve been posting my book reviews on Instagram for a couple of years but I’m hoping Dark Shelf of Wonders Blog can be a slightly fancier home for my bookish ramblings.
Fun Fact: My blog name is a bookish play on words on the song “Dark Chest of Wonders” by the Finnish Symphonic Metal band ‘Nightwish’.
Some of my areas of interest are:
- Ancient & Medieval History
- Mythology
- Nature and the Environment
- Fashion History
- Petting my dog, Cheeto
Rating Scheme
I recently switched to using the CAWPILE system and, so far, I’ve found it helpful (if a bit more work). If you’re not familiar with the system, it was invented by G at Book Roast and the video below explains how it works. I’ll also break it down below in case you don’t want to watch a video.
CAWPILE scores each book out of 10 in these 7 categories:
Characters
Atmosphere
Writing Style
Plot
Intrigue
Logic
Enjoyment
Then the scores are all added up and divided by 7 to give you an average rating, which can then be translated back into the 5-star rating system. I find that the CAWPILE system provides a more detailed view of the elements I loved and didn’t love, allowing other readers to use the information from my reading experience to best suit their needs.
| Ratings | Stars |
|---|---|
| Up to 1.1 | 0 |
| 1.1 – 2.2 | ☆ |
| 2.3 – 4.5 | ☆☆ |
| 4.6 – 6.9 | ☆☆☆ |
| 7 – 8.9 | ☆☆☆☆ |
| 9-10 | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
That being said I am a big advocate for DNF-ing, life is too short to read books that are not a good fit for you. Therefore you probably won’t see too many books with very low scores throughout the categories. I know my reading tastes pretty well, but I occasionally like to read outside of my comfort zone.
