Cheryl’s
Comments
(group member since Jul 30, 2011)
Cheryl’s
comments
from the More than Just a Rating group.
Showing 301-320 of 692
I'd say a 5 star rating definitely needs a review. I sure would like to know what was so amazing about the book! No matter how carefully ratings are derived, I won't judge a book by them. I have a book with an average GR community rating of 2 on my wishlist shelf, and there are lots of books that are trending an average above 4 that I wouldn't dream of reading. And I do think that as one writes a review, even if it's only an idiosyncratic sentence, one gets a better sense of the stars the book is worth, anyway.(There, I wrote a longer post that Curmudgeon did. I'm so proud. ;)
< smiles >
Recipe is a good word for it. I think lots of us agree that most recipes are adaptable, as reviews should be, at least in most situations. Thanks!
Sure, that makes sense that people's perspectives differ, and take everything with a grain of salt. Thanks for sharing, both of you!
Sounds like you two have a pretty good idea of what you want out of reading & reviewing. Bear in mind some folks are still unsure of themselves, and that's why I started this group, and especially this topic thread. Some people don't write very many reviews, and come here looking for guides or templates, to help them get started. :)
bump - I don't blog, but I noticed that this thread has faded - and we have new members who might be interested!
And we're grown-ups and can decide whether to read, scan, or skip your posts. I for one am glad you're not shy!I see Erin's point, I think. We want the authors to be true to themselves, and not to pander. But otoh I do think it's important to speak our mind, and if an author finds something we say helpful, that is, imo, a Good Thing.
It sounds like you all are expressing conflicting ideas - but I'm not sure they need to be seen as oppositional. Maybe it's about finding balance. And of course it's about choosing your audience. If you want to write to me, you'll be more concise and focused, but still both somewhat comprehensive and personal. If you want to write to Stephen's fans, you'll want to make your review long and exciting. If you want to write for yourself, none of this necessarily applies! < grin >
For example, being 'tiniest detail' thorough probably isn't going to be helpful to a lot of people, but being too vague about what's good and bad about a book, or not including something personal as well as something objective, might not be enough to get 'likes' or to help readers like me.
For another example, Unbound says " Who's even interested, really, in the small list of books I find life-affirming?" Well, probably your goodreads friends are. Some very popular reviews here on goodreads are very personal, and offbeat, and only tangentially related to the book being reviewed. So, depending on who you've decided to write the review for, you may tip the scale to describing your dreams. A well-liked reviewer named Manny writes like that. I, otoh, like some of that kind of stuff, but maybe not quite as much as you could give me, if you really went all Joyce-ian stream-of-consciousness on me.
Just some of my thoughts.
One thing I know for sure - I'm glad you're all sharing your ideas - everyone's given me much to think about, and to learn from. :)
Ok, I'm following you now, so I'll be reading your reviews. :)
That's fair! :)
giggleSince your profile is set to private, we can't peek at your reviews unless we add you as a friend, though.
Ok, yes, it was a fairly long post. But it was worth reading through - you make good points. I bet you write good reviews, too.
Sarah, I hope you don't mind that I'm chuckling.I'm gratified to learn that I'm not the only one who sometimes changes her or his opinion of a book as s/he writes the review.
That's twice already in this group you've mentioned mentioned initial expectations, the 'why did I choose this book, what do I want to get out of it' strategy.Thank you! I need to pay attention to that more carefully, both as I read and as I review. I'm sure it'll help me focus my efforts and get more out of the text or story.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...Welcome to goodreads and to this group, a.g.! I'm glad you're diving right in. And that's good advice - I've definitely found, lately, that if I hold off a bit I write better reviews than when I'm impatient.
You definitely have both given me some ideas. I try to say what I liked (and/or didn't) about a book, and also, I try to suggest who else might like (or not like) it, especially if I'm not the target audience. So having either of these kinds of templates handy, in case I'm not sure I'm being thorough, would be a Good Thing.
Thank you, both of you, very much!
When you review a book, take a look at the description, page count, publication year, image, etc. If you notice anything wrong, anything that doesn't match the edition you're holding in your hand, anything missing, please post specific information in the Librarian's Group. Lots of dedicated volunteers are there ready to make the GR database more complete.If you think something's wrong but don't know how to ask for it to be fixed (for example, there's no cover picture but you don't know how to get one because you already gave the book away) you can post here and I, or maybe another librarian member, will try to help you.
If you've got patience and an eye for detail, you can become a librarian yourself. You don't need to volunteer to work on other people's books, or even to do tricky stuff on your own books, but if it's something simple it's easier to fix it yourself. The only requirement is that you've shelved 50 books and that you apply.
I see other folks have a separate exclusive shelf for 'reference' which means cookbooks, etc., that they'll never read every word of, and that don't fit on any of the three default shelves. I think that's cool.
I like that reasoning, Gundula - I've done something similar myself, making ratings different just so they can be used to compare related works. Of course, if the difference is small, you could also do the comparison in the text. That is, for the better book say "Though I've given the same number of stars to Book B, this is actually a better book than that" and in the review for Book B say "Though I've given Book A the same number of stars as this, Book A is the better book."
