Not every book can be a 5-star hit, but I'm curious how different people might react to a "mid" book. If you know a book is mid, would you still read it or prioritise something else? If you consider a book mid, would you still recommend it? Are all mid books rated in the 2.5-3.5 star range or... Idk, what kind of scale do you use?

What aspect(s) of a book are you more prone to tolerate being mid? Writing, plot, characters, the lack of a magic, talking cat? What aspect(s) make you dock off a half star?

Perhaps because I am OldTM, I'd also love to hear your thoughts on why you'd describe something as mid versus decent, basic, acceptable, nothing special, or any other term? Is it just the current lingo or does it encapsulate something more... more? To me, there's a slight negative connotation but maybe I'm understanding this wrong.

Personally, if I'm perusing a library, I won't check for ratings or reviews and will just try it out if the book interests me. Mid or not, it won't be a waste of time. If it were, I'd just DNF. Given the choice to get a digital copy of something I know I might enjoy better, though, I'm not sure I'd pick the former up.

Writing style is also not as big of a deal for me, along with one-dimensional characters. I can resonate with prettier or more profound writing, and certainly I'll point out cookie-cutter characters, but they don't take too big a dent from my rating--unless they're combined together and overall done badly with other aspects of the book.

So what do you think? How much time does a mid book deserve from you?

ETA: I literally have a book sitting on my bookshelf right now, gifted by a friend who loved it, because another friend basically told me it was mid. I have no idea how I'll get over this and finally read the damn thing. Advice appreciated.

In the beginning of the book, I felt like we were starting to get some exploration of how Austen would define and differentiate “sense” and “sensibility,” but I realized that at the end, while it is very clear which sister’s character is intended to be lauded, I don’t really know which is meant to represent “sense” and which “sensibility” or even what the difference is, for Austen. I would love to hear your thoughts about this!!

Pardon me while I follow everyone even minimally active in this forum...Inkheart has been my favorite book/series for about 15 years now, I must have reread it 10 times (and I'm currently doing another series reread!). It makes me really sad that it's not super well known outside of Germany, aside from the other members of the Inkworld discord server I've never met anyone else who has read it 😔 So I'm glad to see other people here who love the series as much as I do!

My question for you all: when did you first read Inkheart? Was this a childhood favorite? Or did you discover it as an adult? How have your impressions of the story changed over time?

(P.S. if you want to join us in the Inkworld discord server feel free to message me there @inkhearts and I will send the link xxx)