10 August 2011
Rating Issues
OK. So. According to my highly statistically relevent poll, many of you would like me to start giving ratings. Here's the issue - ratings are so subjective. I would hate to rate a book a 2/5 just because I didn't like it. Who died and made me the all-knowing book goddess??!! Maybe you would like this book very much. I can't stand the stress of possibly talking you out of reading a book you would really enjoy. Hence the compromise: read the review to find out if I liked the book or not and why; then I will rate various aspects of the book /5. After all it is possible that, technically, the book is a 4.61/5 but I just didn't connect with the story. You might connect with the story and, looking at the /5 rating, decide to read a book that will change your life, even though I didn't like it. If you are looking for ratings, look in the pink box by the amazon icon in the review - and make up your own very capable mind about whether or not the book appeals to you. I'm kind of liking the addition of this rating system - I hope you do too.
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Oh I understand your feelings. I actually have reflection post coming up this week about ratings.
ReplyDeleteI hate to rate :/ Cos one book I give a 3 may not be as good as that other book I gave a 3. So I just let me review tell teh story :)
ReplyDeleteThat's why it's best to put the rating at the end because the real information isn't in the rating at all but in the review. I haven't been putting my ratings at the end so far because I haven't found any graphics that suit me so I've been using a plugin, but I'm desperate to change that.
ReplyDeleteI had this problem actually quite recently. I'd have given the book a 2 star rating with my usual system, which is my opinion on how much I liked the book, but the premise of the races in the story and the way it was written were so so fantastic I couldn't give it an "it was okay" rating, it deserved better so in the end I settled for 3.5. While I didn't like it, I had to meet myself in the middle. The great thing was that people actually seemed to pay more attention to my review itself :)
Honestly though, if you aren't comfortable giving ratings, don't give ratings. I got used to them because I started on Goodreads but they aren't a necessity at all.
Once Upon A Time