23 Jun 2014

DISCUSSION: Ratings

Hello, and welcome to another discussion post. Today, we're discussing ratings. This has got several different parts to it, so I'm going to split them with little subheadings. Let's get started!

Rating systems
This is one Chami and I have been talking a lot about recently. At the moment, we rate out of five stars but we've been talking about how this doesn't really mean that much (I'm going to go into a little more detail about that further down.) 

I don't usually put a lot of thought into rating books, I'll admit to that. Usually in the last hundred pages or so, I can kind of work out what I'm going to rate the book and most of the time, the ending doesn't change that. Though, there have been a few.

But how do you decide what makes one book a five compared to another? I don't really compare my books when it comes to rating them. Unless they are books all from the same series in which case I can usually work out which book I should rate higher, or lower or whether they should be the same. For example, I recently read Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick which is the third book in the Hush, Hush series. I liked it much better than the second book, so I rated it four stars while Crescendo (#2) only got three. I hope that makes sense to you all!

Goodreads ratings
Now I love Goodreads, I really do. In fact, I spend a majority of my day looking through Goodreads at new books, at groups and reviews etc. However, I think people can be incredibly harsh on Goodreads.

This is another thing Chami and I have discussed at various times. Everyone has the right to their own opinion and I'm a very firm believer in that, but I'm also completely terrified of confrontation. I'm naturally a very, very, very shy person so I really don't like people arguing about things, even on the internet. Chami will tell you, if we have an argument about something I'd rather just avoid you for days than confront you about it. (I realise this really isn't healthy, but this post isn't about anxiety so let's just ignore that)

Everyone has the right to say that they didn't like a book, that they hated it, it was stupid, etc. etc. but I think sometimes people can take it a little too far. I don't mean just rating a book one or two stars or marking it as 'dnf', that's fine. It's when people use reviews to personally attack the author, or even fans of the book. In school, we read this terrible book called Sold by Patricia McCormick. I cannot even begin to describe to you how much I hated that book, but I don't hate Patricia McCormick because of it and I won't hate you if you tell me you loved the book. Just like I expect that you don't hate me when I say that, yeah, I really love the Fury trilogy by Elizabeth Miles (which has a reasonably low average rating on GR).

This gets to me because I don't think you should attack authors for writing a book. It doesn't matter how bad that book might be, authors have feelings too. I especially think this is important for authors that are on Goodreads and especially, especially, the less well-known or indie writers. Authors can stumble upon these reviews and that can be their whole day ruined.

I'm not saying you shouldn't have your own opinions, but just...be mindful.

My ratings
That leads nicely into the last bit I want to talk about is my personal ratings. Maybe it comes with the whole non-confrontational thing, but I find that I don't usually rate books under four or five stars. It's not that I love every book ever written, but I find if I'm really not enjoying a book, I'll usually put it down to pick up at a later time. That way, I usually love all the books that I end up finishing because they managed to hold my attention until the very end.

In case you were wondering, Goodreads tells me that I've rated 153 books 5 stars, 191 4 stars, 44 3 stars, 2 2 stars and 2 1 star. Cruel Beauty and Of Mice and Men are the two star books, and Sold and Twilight (which is probably unfair) are the one star. I'm sure if I looked through my read books more carefully there'd be ones that probably deserved two's rather than three's.

As I said, I don't really think about my ratings critically. If I thought the book was perfect, it gets five stars but if I thought it was just missing something, it gets four. That's pretty much how it works for me. I think like most bloggers/reviewers, I use my reviews to explain why each book gets that certain rating and sometimes writing out my thoughts means my rating changes...it all depends.

So that kind of turned more into a rant than a discussion! Please let me know your thoughts on the ratings. How does your rating system work? How do you feel about negative ratings? And do you rate ridiculously high for everything like me? Let me know!

If you made it the whole way through this post, then you're amazing and I love you very much!


10 comments:

  1. I tend to go with my gut feeling on ratings. Which is why I've started giving half stars on Goodreads. Because sometimes, it's better than a three star book but isn't quite a four star book... The same with 4.5 star books - sometimes I love something, but I just don't QUITE feel that it's a five star book. I'm pretty liberal with giving out 4 stars. But 5 stars or 1 star? Those are for the best of the best and the worst of the worst. (I've read 128 books so far this year, and I've given out 5 one star reviews and 18 five star reviews. But 13 of those 18 were rereads)

    Negative reviews, to me, are fine as long as you don't personally attack the author. It's one thing to say "Look, there are some problems that could have been easily rectified with a little research". It's a completely different thing to say "Wow, it's really obvious that [Author] didn't even bother to crack and book and check his/her facts". And for the love of God, don't tag authors in negative reviews!!

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    1. That's actually a really good idea. I do half star ratings very rarely but I really should start doing them. Also, 128 books? You're magnificent (and crazy).

      I agree! I actually feel upset by reviews that personally attack authors, even if I'm not a fan of the author myself. I feel it's the same as making a rude status on Facebook and tagging the person you're speaking about it. It's horrible!

      x Ely

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  2. Yay discussion!

    I used to rate a lot of books 4 and 5 stars, but then I also realized that I was rating my books inconsistently. Now I've definitely leveled everything out a bit on my Goodreads, but I'm rating a lot of books 3 stars now. Especially when I go to the Goodreads page and see more than a dozen 5-star ratings for the book. Then I think to myself, "hmm maybe I'm being too harsh," BUT NO I'M NOT. 3 stars actually means "I liked the book", and not "this book was crap." (I think I read somewhere that an author was bashing her reviewers because they were only giving her 3 star ratings.) But the moral of the story is, everyone has their own rating system, and no one should feel shame for their ratings.

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    1. I think I probably need to do the same. There are a few books I've read that probably really deserve a 3 star rating from me rather than a 4 or a 5. I'll have to work on that! That last line pretty much sums everything up Val. I'm going to have it framed and use it as a reminder for people on Goodreads.

      x Ely

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  3. I really struggle with rating, actually! I feel like 5 stars isn't enough room. >-< I have too many varying opinions...and I can also rate depending on mood. But like, 3 stars for me means "meh not good, not bad". Whereas for other people, 3-stars just means good. So that's confusing!! I know some people NEVER ever use 5 stars! But I give them when I love a book. It doesn't have to knock my socks completely off to get 5-stars, or, lol, I'd never give them out. Life is too short not to give 5-stars. I definitely agree reviews shouldn't attack authors or fans. That makes everyone feel bad, I think. :|

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    1. Thank you Cait! This is exactly how I feel. For me, one 5 star rating can mean 'OMG THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER' another might just be 'I really, really love this series' or 'this is a re-read, I love it too much to give it any less'. I think three stars for me is, 'it's not the worst thing I've ever read, but it's not the best either' so a similar sort of thing to yours. Yes, and reviews aren't around to make people feel bad!

      x Ely

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  4. I rate things extremely high as well! But I usually reserve my crazy fangirl ratings for the Goodreads rating. When I write reviews, I have a rating system of 25 stars that rounds down to 5. I have 5 categories that I give a 1-5 rating for each. So that means that my review rating and my Goodreads ratings are usually very different!

    P.S
    Could you guys turn of Captcha please? xo

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  5. I've become very picky about my ratings in the last year or so. I used to not really have to think about whether or not a book was a four or five star book, but now I only rate THE BEST books as five stars. The ones that made me cry/were so amazing that it kills me.I don't compare my books when rating them either, since I like my rating system to stand alone. I used to have a word rating system, which kind of helps me to figure out how many stars I think a book deserves. I'm quite good at not rating books ridiculously highly XD Mostly because I'm one of those people who will read a book if it makes me rage. Because I think it's fun.

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  6. I just revamped my whole system (how I chose books, handle reviews etc), and I no longer rate books at all-I've gone all Matrix like over here, lol. It's really freeing not having those pesky stars hanging over my head now :)

    Just found your blog and I'm a new email subscriber!

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    1. Oh wow! I just read your posts about this actually, and I don't understand how you're going to do this but I kind of envy you at the same time. You'll have to let me know how you go with this.

      Aw, thank you so much. Also, I love the fact that you're a 'Jayne' (I am too!)

      x Ely

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