Friday, January 14, 2011

MY TAKE ON RATINGS AND REVIEWS (AND ANNOUNCING AN EXCITING NEW BLOG!)

Melissa over at Coffee, Books, and Laundry posted an insightful post about ratings and reviews.  Go HERE to read the entire post.
Here's what she asked:

What does a three rating mean to you? What do ya’ll think about ratings? Is the 1 through 5 system too plain? Most importantly though, do you debate whether you should give a book a try with a rating in the 3's on Goodreads or Amazon?

This was my response in the comments and it pretty much sums up how I feel about ratings and reviews:

I learned a long time ago that reviews are subjective. I first learned this with movie reviews when most of the movies I liked were given bad reviews. I then learned it with book reviews when I started blogging. There were several people that hated The Time Traveler's Wife and I loved it. Now what if I would have read their reviews before reading it and then not read it because of them? I would have missed out on a book I truly loved. So, while I read (some) reviews, I just keep them in mind. I do not let them influence what I read. I also do not give point ratings, except on Goodreads and on my Novel Glimpses (mini-reviews). Books just have so much to offer. There is often so much good along with the bad. I find it hard to put a number on it. And I find myself second guessing the ratings I have given on Goodreads a lot. A ratings system is just not for me.

In answer to your question, a 3 rating would not dissuade me from reading a book. Even a bad review doesn't do that. If I planned on reading the book and I read a bad review of it, I still read the book anyway!

So what is your opinion on this subject?  Feel free to share in the comments.

I also wanted to take a moment to introduce you to a new book blog that I'm pretty excited about.  My friend, Heather, who I met through Twitter and TuesBookTalk, has created her very own book blog.  Heather has great taste in reading and discussing books with her is very interesting and thought provoking.  So stop over at Between the Covers... and say hello...and be sure to tell her I sent you so she knows what a great friend I am...LOL!  ;o)  Welcome to the wonderful world of book blogging, Heather!

5 comments:

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. It means so much.

I apologize for word verification, but as soon as I changed the settings from only users with Google accounts, I started receiving a ton of spam comments...within one hour of changing the settings. The bots are on high alert apparently.

  1. Thank you so much, Michelle! This is really wonderful. :)

    As far as the rating system goes, I call three stars a "meh," meaning it was ok, I didn't dislike it, but I wouldn't read it again. I like reading book reviews, but I'm like you--if I was already planning on reading a book, a bad review wouldn't stop me. I have read plenty of books that major critics didn't like, and some of those I really enjoyed. So while I will be reviewing books on my new website, I feel like I should end all of my reviews with the words from Reading Rainbow--"But you don't have to take my word for it." Hahaha!

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  2. I like ratings. They help me better understand the reviewer. Ultimately it's what the reviewer says, not the number, that really carries weight with me.

    If I really interested in a book, I will read it no matter what anyone says.

    GREAT post :)

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  3. I don't use a ratings system on my blog because I think you can pretty well get an idea of what I would rate the book by reading my reviews. I do rate books on Goodreads but I'm always starting off my reviews there by adding another half star or 3/4 star because I think 5 stars is too limiting. Three star reviews don't turn me off a book but it is more likely to put it on what I call my "maybe" list.

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  4. Great responses here, ladies! I appreciate the commentary. =O)

    Not sure what happened to my intense debate comment section on this post. It's a mystery!

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