If you are a certified bibliophile, you must have rated all the books you’ve read. Though, it would probably be a numerical rating system—say, a 5-star or 10-star only. But this lady decided to take it a notch higher and created her own rating system.
Lauren Tarshis took to Twitter to share what she recently discovered about her mother-in-law who recently passed away. “I lost my mother in law last week. She was 96 and one of my best friends. A lifelong lover of books, she kept track of all she read on index cards and recorded her opinion in code. This is the key to her code and the cards we found among her belongings,” she wrote along with photos of the the cards.
I lost my mother in law last week. She was 96 and one of my best friends. A lifelong lover of books, she kept track of all she read on index cards and recorded her opinion in code. This is the key to her code and the cards we found among her belongings. pic.twitter.com/Iabmek9B7F
— Lauren Tarshis (@laurenTarshis) May 26, 2018
Apparently, Tarshis’ mother-in-law Stefanie Dreyfuss recorded all the books she read and reviewed them through a very interesting method she created. Although, it seems that no book has delighted her much during her entire lifetime based on the partial codes seen in the photo.
Here are some of the codes she made that are both ingenious and humorous.
RB: Readable Banality
RP: Readable Piffle
NFM: Not For Me
DNF: Did Not Finish
DNR: Did Not Read
RP+: One step up from RP
RPM: Readable piffle mystery
G: Good didn’t hold my attention
VB: Very bad
NMS: Not my style
NBAL: Not bad at all
RR: Readable
WOT: Waste of Time
The post inspired someone to create a message for the family using Dreyfuss code:
https://twitter.com/ponderoda/status/1000833988947316737
While others found her coding system cool and even said that it’s better than Goodreads:
https://twitter.com/antlerlibrarian/status/1000404516787941377
I'm so so sorry for your loss. Just seeing this card makes me wish I knew her. This is an amazing treasure! After zooming in on it, have (I think) ascertained that RP+1 is the highest rating? I feel like Goodreads needs to adopt these codes!
— Karen Rivers (@karenrivers) May 26, 2018
And even inspired someone to name their cat, or blog, or band after a particular code:
Readable Piffle is sure to be the name of my next cat. Or band. Or blog. Or roller derby moniker.
— Betsy Bird (@FuseEight) May 27, 2018
But out of all her codes, many found RP (piffle means: nonsense) very amusing.
Oh Lauren. So sorry. Readable piffle shall be immortal. ❤️💫
— Judy Blundell (@judymblundell) May 26, 2018
I love her code.Readable piffle made me laugh as piffle is a word used by my dad about books, films,Etc.Haven’t heard it for a good while now. Sorry you have lost your best friend.
— l (@lainie1888) May 28, 2018
My faves are RP and RP+1! 😊
— Dr Kate Cushing #SaveOurNHS (@KateCushing2) May 28, 2018
Looks like she had a good sense of humour 😍. I love 'Readable Piffle'
— KAlexander (@KazAlexander) May 28, 2018
I guess it’s time to change your book rating system or start one if you haven’t!
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