Cheryl’s Comments (group member since Jul 30, 2011)

Cheryl’s comments from the More than Just a Rating group.

Kimberly, that's a good insight - maybe I did push the rating higher than I really wanted to, for some reason.

Ok, I've got enough ideas to justify going back and doing a bit of revision - thanks all!

It's ok. We love you anyway. :)

Kind of. It's more like when someone mocks a person for reading (or writing) romance, say, or science-fiction. Sometimes those kinds of specific genres are segregated in back corners of the bookstore, like they're not 'respectable,' or the publisher will market the book differently, perhaps thinking it will have a smaller market and not give it as much support.

So then what happens sometimes is an author will do whatever she can to make the book look like 'General Fiction' or 'Literary Fiction' to try to make it appeal to the snobs who don't like to admit they're reading genre fiction.

:)

So, do any of you have any thoughts about encouraging other folks to write more reviews, and to write more reviews that we/I/you find helpful?

Lots of thoughts swirling chaotically in my mind. I can't seem to make them connect, so I'll just enumerate.

1. I want reviews to be helpful as I decide whether to read the book. That is, I want them to be somewhat specific, somewhat thorough, and I definitely want them to mention if the book is clean or what the 'yuck factor' is.

2. I totally recognize & respect that other people want different kinds of reviews.

3. I totally recognize & respect that writers of reviews have an assortment of their own agendas.

4. I want more reviews, period.

5. I imagine that if I use the 'like' button on a review, and tell the writer why I liked it (eg, thanks for mentioning the gory stuff, I appreciate your help in deciding not to read this), that review-writer might write more, and more of my favored kind of, reviews in the future.

6. There's millions of GR members, and the ones I most want to 'evangelize' to are the ones who are less likely to write reviews, and therefore less likely to get a 'like' from me.

7. The one time a friend of a friend came on and added some neat quick reviews, I told him I was enjoying reading them and I was looking forward to seeing more. Not long after that his participation faded. Possibly coincidence (the reviews were for previous reads that he was just adding en masse), but possibly not.

I agree. And we've talked about it a bit already in this group. I'm thinking I'm about to go off topic with a question, though, so I'll start a new thread. It's about trying to find more of the kinds of reviews we want to see, trying to get writers of reviews to be more helpful...

heh-heh

I like you David but I don't empathize!

Ok, to clarify - my attitude is, there are lots of amazing books out there. I want to spend my time on the best ones. I don't want to even check out the ones that don't have reviews that make it look like it'll be a good read, and once I'm into a book, if it's a struggle, I'll put it down. That's me. Obviously that's not you. Interesting. :)

A lot of parents, aunties, etc. "sponsor" their young children, too. It's still side-stepping the rules, because you, the caregiver, still have to lie, but if you want your child to have a bookshelf of their own separate from yours, it's the only way I've seen to do it.

And of course the reason minors are restricted is to make it possible for goodreads to abide by child-protections laws so stuff like getting sued for letting kids see naked pictures doesn't happen.

(Sorry to go off-topic, but this has been on my mind today and since this particular thread is 'mine' I'm making an executive decision to break the rule. :)

So, the even quicker exp. could be "Could you say former? Then say latter. If you're referring to time, say later."

Dawn, do any of these tips work for you? What should I put in the cheat sheet?

lol - some people! - aggravating!!

Wow. So, do you have a lot of books that you don't finish?

Ok so we gotta go Zen and find the Balance. ;)

Hm - I like the way you're thinking - maybe that's why I didn't feel like I could say much about it, though, because there really was no plot and the characters were pretty generic. I guess I could simply say that, though! Thanks!

blah indeed

Hm. Latter vs later. Of course they're pronounced differently. If you're still not sure, after saying them aloud.. hm. Latter can be more independent. "I chose the latter." Later needs to be attached to what it's referring to. "I chose the later one."

Oh that's a bad explanation. Help?

lol - I love these ideas - I think I'll create an imaginary shower buddy to talk about books with... or would that be too distracting....

I never thought about paragraphs being so short that the review seems jumpy and incomplete. I guess in an era of Tweets and texts, even though I don't use them, I've just gotten used to the idea of a well-developed paragraph or essay or review as being 'old-school.' But of course you make a great point and I'll remember it!

They are fun to read - and yes time does fly!