Exhibit 6.13

So I've been playing around with Goodreads for the last two days and have decided that I'm unwilling to give star ratings. Thankfully, the website has a lot more to offer so I still plan on using it as it's a cool way to find work. It's sort of like going to Dusty's blog only a bunch of people are on it and it actually gets updated.

I came to the realization like this: After giving away some 5 star rankings to books I love yesterday, I found myself tormented on how to dole out stars for books I "only" really liked, or, even worse, didn't like for very specific and often very subjective reasons. I didn't feel like I would have the time or the mental acuity to always explain why a book got three stars instead of four, and, more importantly, I'm not really interested in creating a hierarchy of books in the first place.

I suppose I think book criticism should be more than a rating system--or a quid pro quo arrangement--but even then I think I could live with a rating system if I was capable of using it more responsibly than I probably am. Even then, I really don't know what the stars intend to measure or if I could use them consistently from book to book. The stars go from "didn't like it" to "it was amazing" and maybe I'm crazy, but I feel like some books are capable of making me feel both ways simultaneously. Sometimes those are the best books, but there's no room for that in the ranking system so I suppose if I feel that way I'll just have to write it out. I'm fine with that.

I'd prefer that whoever looks at my list of books sees books that I decided, for whatever reason and with whatever outcome, to spend my time with. There are so many out there, that I guess I see that as endorsement enough. Unlike with movies or albums, I rarely regret my choices when it comes to books because even when I hate something I don't feel like it was a waste of time or money. It's hard to let someone know that a book you gave two stars is deeply flawed but still an important or even beautiful book.

So apologies to Haruki Murakami and anyone else I gave 5 stars to yesterday only to cruelly remove them today. It's not you, Haruki, it's me.