Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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What is your rating style like?
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My average is 3.32, with 15% in 5 star. My biggest percentage (45%) lies in the 3 star category. And that feels right to me - I have been lucky to really, really love a fair few of the books that I've read. But most of them I liked well enough. I actually thought I'd have more 1 star ratings (5%) because MAN, I've read some total duds the last couple of years!
My average is more or less 4. I find it normal as for me 5 stars = loved, 4 stars= liked, 3 stars= some things were good, 2 stars= argh, 1 star= why?. I usually never finish "argh/why" so I don't rate them and I can skip or be often bored with 3 stars.My rating is overall high because I tend to try the sample first, choose books with high ratings and books high rated by my friends with the same tastes. I read in my comfort zone too.
I added too some books I read some years ago and rated the ones I remember as very enjoyable but, of course, I didn't add the ones I disliked (I don't remember them).
2015 was a little different because I tried to finish all my books, even when it was painful, and with the challenge I read things without having a look at them before (or in genres I usually dislike).
For 2015 (with side-reads +challenge), I end with 50% 4 stars, 20% 5 stars and 25% 3 stars.
Last time I recall checking, it hovered around 3.70. It is rather high due to old books hoisting up the number - because I recall the good ones. But if it were calculated for books read post joining only, I imagine it'd be decidedly lower.I used to be less strict in my evaluations, but now I rarely give five stars. That would be a totally amazing book within its genre, but I rarely stumble upon such writing. Four stars is 'I loved it', three 'I liked it', two 'it was all right' and one 'hmpff' or 'urgh' depending on the mood I was left with. Real OMGhateditwithpassion go on a special board in addition to receiving one star.
Oh, and I don't compare across genres, but stay within context at all times, because how could one draw nice parallels between say erotica and dystopia?
My average is 3.23. Almost half of my ratings are 3 stars. I only give 5 stars when I really really love a book. Therefore a 4 star rating from me is actually a good rating. I rarely give only 1 star. It has happened five times and it's books I struggle with because of bad writing, unreliable or boring characters or books I just don't understand.
I'd prefer the scale went from 1 to 10 or the possibility of given half stars, since I'm often torn between two ratings.
I too would love half star ratings, Marina! I'm often torn between two ratings.
My average is 3.62. I think I'm quite lenient with my ratings or maybe my ratings just tend to be higher because I wouldn't finish a book that I would rate a 1 and I wouldn't finish most 2's. Most of my ratings are 3's and 4's. 3's are books that I enjoyed enough to not feel like they were a waste of time, but that I wouldn't recommend or read again. 4's are books that I really liked. I give 5s to books that I enjoyed so much that they make me miss them after I'm finished. I would like to be able to give half star ratings too.
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I think I give mostly 3 and 4 stars. I'll give a book 4 stars if I can't put it down and really enjoy it. But it has to really impact me to gain 5 stars.
My average rating is 3.38. I try to follow the goodreads rating style.
The books i rated with 5 stars are books i absolutely loved and most of them are my life favorites. In 2015 i rated 4 books with 5 stars (16% of all books i read in 2015)
The books i rated with 4 stars are books i really liked, but did not amazed me. In 2015 i rated 7 books with 4 stars (28% of all books i read in 2015)
3 starts for me is books i liked in general. Nothing special. Just a nice book i enjoyed, but did not cause any surprise in me. In 2015 i rated 11 books with 3 stars (44% of all books i read in 2015)
2 stars for the books i finished but didn't like in general. I mean, i don't recommend to anyone. In 2015 i rated 2 books with 2 stars (8% of all books i read in 2015)
1 star is for awful books. Really awful. Books i didn't like at all and were really painful to finish. In 2015 just 1 book was rated with 1 star (4% of all books i read in 2015).
I've got an average rating of 3.75, so a little on the higher side of the scale.I think the reason for this is that I tend to read books I'm going to enjoy. I choose authors, genres, or topics I enjoy reading or am interested to read more about. I read the back or inside cover of the book, and take a look at ratings and reviews here on goodreads. If I don't think I'll enjoy the book, I don't read it.
Reading is something I enjoy, and I don't want to waste time with books I'm not liking it. This means almost all of the books I rate fall into the scale as at least a three (only 3% of my ratings are 2 or lower).
3 means I enjoyed the book and was happy I read it.
4 means I really enjoyed the book; it was well written and pulled me into the story and impressed me with something in it, perhaps a character or the writing style.
5 means it went above and beyond my expectations; it moved me or I believe the subject matter is important, it made me think and ponder about the subject matter or choices the characters made after I finished reading, or it is so astoundingly good I will read it multiple times (I rarely read books more than once).
I'm definitely like Peter when buying books, and even may go as far as to borrow from the library first (in case of reference books), so on another site my review star numbers are 'distorted' like he desceibes.When it comes to fiction via OverDrive I'm a bit less worried about prior research, but as per my discussion thread here on reading reviews first or not, I do have this 'bias' going on here on GR, too. Seems others investigate to a certain extent as well.
In the end there are so many books... GR has helped me visualise how few books I in reality manage to read, which has helped stop me buying more for now, even Kindle books. Our OverDrive also constantly gets new books, which reduces even further the need to invest on one's own.
My average is 4.14, with 44% 5 stars - way highest! Five stars: I really enjoyed the book, or found it highly valuable or profound, with no major faults. I do not reserve the five star for favorites - I have a shelf for that.
Four: Enjoyed it but had some flaws.
Three: blah, was worthwhile but did not connect with me, or enjoyable but with big reservations.
Two: did not like it but finished, or did not finish, but had redeeming qualities.
One: totally unreadable, could not finish. I only have two of those because I usually quickly determine if I don't like a book, and stop reading and remove it from my books.
My average is high because I tend to pick books I would like, I don't keep the ones on my list that I really disliked, and I feel that a five is not something that should be reserved but given out whenever I feel that my time spent on a book was greatly rewarded.
I totally agree with you Marta, when a book gives me love, I give it back with a 5 stars (or more for some of them I'd like to never finish).
I agree about five stars! If I love a book, it gets five stars. I follow the GR suggestions for star ratings anyway - eg. 5 = loved it etc.
My average is a 3.90. I thought this seemed high, but I realized that this past year I found myself falling in love with a lot of the books I have read.5 = Much Love. So Wow. I will recommend this book to everyone.
4 = Liked it. I'll recommend this book to certain people.
3 = Meh. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.
2 = It could have been worse.
1 = Seriously? Why did I waste my time?
My average rating is 3.57. I thought it would be higher, since 73% of this year's books got a 4 or a 5, but I was apparently more severe with the books I read before joining Goodreads.Here's my rating :
5: I really loved this book, it brought me great joy, I was so into it that I read it really quickly or I was really impressed. I do not reserve the 5 stars for my absolute favorites.
4: I really liked this book, it was good, not perfect, but very good.
3: This book wasn't bad, but there were some things that I didn't appreciate.
2: No, that was not for me. I finished it only because I'm totally unable not to finish a book, but I don't recommend it.
1: This was a definite mistake, I can safely say I hated it. I only ever gave one star to a book I had to read for school which gave me rashes even thinking about it (Thérèse Raquin)
My average rating is 3.72. I also thought it would be higher because I read some really great books this year and rated most of them 4 and even a few 5.
This is a really interesting thing to think about! I remember when I first joined goodreads I tried to review based on whether it was a well-written book and not based on how much I enjoyed reading it. That changed pretty quickly. My average is 4.01, with 41% of my reviews being five stars, so I guess I err on the side of positivity!Five stars normally go to books I've read multiple times, books I plan on reading again, or books that I would recommend to others. Also, books I now want to add to my own library at home because I won't mind spending money on them.
Four stars for books I enjoyed but don't think I'll be going out of my way to read again. I'd probably recommend them to people whose interests they align with, and not just anyone.
Three stars for books I liked but had some issue/grievance with. This could either be a really good book with a dealbreaker, or an otherwise okay book that just lacked that something special.
Two stars for books that were okay and I'm sort of glad I read them... I think? But it was kind of a waste of time. I'll probably tell people to avoid these.
One star goes to books that I will never pick up again and will probably never read anything by the author again, either. They were that bad.
You know what is interesting? The rating suggestions by GR for each star is based on the completely subjective reading experience (including feelings), yet the fanatics of how to write a review correctly have a set of standards they think everyone should follow. The way I see it, you can't have the cake and eat it.
Yes, I'm definitely with you on this one, Raeann. I do give 5 stars to books I love but it is just a cream of the crop type o' rating for me. It has to be a very special, very extraordinary book to me. It has to be the kind of book that I'm still thinking about or still talking about days after I've finished reading it. It has to be one of those books that gives me a book hangover. :)If it was just a good book that I felt was a worthy read, it gets a 4-star rating.
It is really fascinating to see how other people rate though. Especially some of you who are my GoodReads friends and whose reviews/ratings I often use as a gauge for determining what books are worthwhile.
Aglaea, I didn't realize there were "how to write reviews" fantatics on GoodReads. Where did you stumble upon that?
Oh, people just seem very heated at times. I was trying to initiate a conversation only the other day with someone, who almost bit my head off :D I had liked the book, they hadn't, and I was curious whether they had read more in the same series, explaining further development of the character. This wasn't welcome input at all, haha. In general, there are very inflamed threads in review comments, which are quite amusing to observe, humans in all our glory.
Hmm... I guess I never noticed. I read other people's reviews but I rarely read the comments so maybe I'm just missing it. How funny that people get so heated about that.
Mine is 3.16 with the highest being 3 star (43%). 1 stars for me are the ones that I DNFed or thought had been a waste of time.The latter are mostly when the book is part of a series and I really like the series, but just hate one of the books. Oh, the pain when I read those ones...
2 stars may also contain a few DNFs that were okay, I didn't hate them, but they were so boring that I just couldn't any more. Generally the boring ones that I painfully dragged through.
3 starts will be the ones with a good plot -in my opinion- and good characters. I enjoy these ones but not much and overall, they're cool. But nothing especial.
4 stars, these are the ones that I really enjoy. I love everything about these books -the plot, the characters- everything. They just either leave my hollow at some point or don't live up to my expectations -which will be explained in 5 stars.
5 stars are the books that bring me so much emotions in the end I'm left debating everything in my life. I don't care that they may lack things in the general opinion, for me they bring excitement and shock almost every chapter and I can't put the book down. (which says a lot, because I'm known for putting books down at any point, even if something very interesting and exciting is happening)
Although when I first joined GR, I tried to add as much books as I could remember and considering that I rated them depending on how I've felt when I've read them back then, I think my average ratings are still a bit high. Nowadays, I generally give out twos and threes with almost fours and very very little fives.
My average is 4.27 with a 37% 5 star. I guess i'm not as picky as most people for books I find very interesting/memorable.
Emm wrote: "I too would love half star ratings, Marina! I'm often torn between two ratings."I would also love the option of half stars! I've just checked, and my average is 4.37, which is a bit higher than I expected. To be fair, I haven't rated/reviewed every book that I've added to my list.
I'm not usually too strict with my ratings. I'll give 5 stars if the book has some kind of impact on me -- which usually means excellent plot/character development, or some kind of lasting impression. Like Emm said, a book that I'm still thinking about or talking about later. Sometimes, it's just a matter of a book that I really enjoyed reading.
I don't remember ever abandoning a book without finishing it, or hating a book enough to give it a 1 star review. But to get a 1, it would have to be something either extremely boring/dry or poorly written.
Emm wrote: "I'm just curious... what is your average rating? If you're not sure where to find this it is on your profile page beneath your profile picture.When I re-joined GoodReads I decided that I wasn't g..."
You can add your old books as "read" without having to give a rating. That's what I did for books I read 10+ years ago.
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My average is 4.04 with 46% 5 stars. Either I'm very lucky with my book choices, or I'm just easily pleased. Haha.
My rating style is mostly personal and heavily depends on my mood. There could be an extremely good book but if I just wasn't in the mood to read it but went ahead and read it anyway, it might get a lower score than it deserved.
My average is 3.89. 272 ratings in total so far.
3.83. I figured it would be close to four. I often dump one or 2 -star books and not even keep reading, so a lot of them do not get rated at times. Because of challenges this year, I have finished a few that would have been dumped prior. Rated 911 books. Most books I read end up a four or five.
Luisa wrote: "My average rating is 3.38. I try to follow the goodreads rating style.
The books i rated with 5 stars are books i absolutely loved and most of them are my life favorites. In 2015 i rated 4 book..."
I like your rating system.
My average rating is 3.91, quite high compared to some of the people commenting here. Like Zaz, Peter and Marta, I tend to be choosy with what I read, and only start a book if I think I will enjoy it. I read the synopsis, check the average rating, and see what the people I feel have the same taste in books have said about it, or what their rating was. So most of my books get a 4 star rating, meaning I liked/loved it. I am stingy with 5 stars, not out of anything premeditated, it just has to be a book that blew my socks off for some reason or other, and I absolutely loved it. 3 stars means it was OK, 2 stars means I didn't like it, and 1 star means I not only didn't like it, it offended me in some way. So my rating system is very subjective.
I added quite a few books as "read" without rating them, that I read a long time ago, and only rated those I absolutely remember having had an effect on me.
Sounds like my rating system is very similar to Anna's. My average is 3.79, but I think it is being skewed a bit up by Manga series. 5 is a rare rating for me. It means that I not only enjoyed it immensely but could find not place where the book could be improved which wouldn't be nitpicking.
4 is a book that I liked and one of my more common ratings. I'd recommend this book but won't be as adamant about it as I would a 5.
3 is a rating which could be summed up as 'Meh'. But there are two very different types of books here. One is a rather boring book that I didn't mind reading but didn't particularly enjoy. The other is a book of extremes, where I loved parts and was put off by other parts (or extremely bored) where the two average each other out.
2 is a book that i did not like at all and regret reading but where I find that there is some minor redeeming factor.
1 is a book which should be left unread by anyone and that I regret reading. There is a rage that fills me whenever I hear of another thinking about reading said book and I will adamantly try to stave anyone off from doing so.
I go by the description Goodreads includes for the most part with the following rules added.* = So bad I couldn't finish it.
** = Was able to finish.
*** = As my younger brother would say, "meh".
**** = I enjoyed it and would recommend it.
***** = So good, I want to re-read it and/or it made me cry.
I gave 1 star for only one book. It was The Look of Love.♥♥♥♥♥ - Awesome. Someday I may re-read it!
♥♥♥♥ - Good. Nice reading!
♥♥♥ - I felt asleep while reading it, but at least I was able to finish.
♥♥ - Oh Lord! This one was hard to finish!!!! I will avoid this writter.
♥ - I wanted to kill myself because this was really REALLY bad.
My average rating is 3.47. I rate a lot of books 4 stars (33%) and at the same time I'm more likely to give out a 2 (12%) or 3 (31%) star rating than a 5 star one (17%). Only 7% of my reviews are 1 star, probably because I usually just dnf books that I'd otherwise rate 1 star but if I rated those all 1 star, it'd probably be lower, I'm quick to give up, haha.Edit: I went into my gave-up shelf and rated all the dnf books I'm not planning on trying again 1 star. My average rating is now 3.35. Just as I thought.
Here's a question for everyone. Given the annoying lack of half-star rating options, how do you handle books that are a solid half-star between two scores. I've had this problem a lot lately, where my books are a very clear 3.5 or 4.5, and I'm left to figure out whether to round the scores up or down. I often tend to round up, but I'm curious how other people handle it. I really wish we had either an option to give half-stars, or even a 10 star scale instead of 5. Of course, with a 10 star scale there's still the possibility of needing half-star ratings, but I feel like it would be easier to make the distinctions between say a 7 and an 8 than between a 3 and a 4 sometimes.
I use 3.5 and 4.5 that I put at the beginning of my reviews. - I mostly give 4 stars to the 4.5 as there is usually something that the book lacked even if I loved it.
- For 3.5 stars, it's usually books that I didn't fully like but that were well done or books that I liked but that weren't well done. Depending on what is the problem or the author, I'll put 3 or 4 stars.
I worked with 5 and 10 scale ratings and in the end, the problem is always here: you almost never give a 10, so you hesitate between 8 and 9 and end with a 8.5. Half stars is better because it equals "it was like this, but with a bonus!", so it's easier to decide when to give it. But on a coding side, it seems a nightmare and GR devs don't seem to be very good as the site has very few improvements except for cosmetic ones.
If I really think a book is bad I don't give it any stars.
It depends on the book for me - they are usually closer to one or the other, so I either round up or down, or I often find that a little while after I've read the book and I've had time to think, I'll be more decisive on my rating.
When I hesitate between two ratings, I go and have a look at my read shelf and see how the books compares to other 3 or 4 stars book. It is sometimes really helpful to think "overall this book deserves a better rating than this one"
I like that idea, Sophie. I tend to round down. I'm pretty stingy with giving out 4 & 5 stars, but I am not big on giving 1 or 2 stars either, so it feels like the majority of what I read falls into 3 stars, but my 3 star probably actually covers 2.5 to 3.9, haha. If the book is between a 4 and a 5, it becomes a 4. I really make those 5 star books earn it.
Katie wrote: "I like that idea, Sophie. I tend to round down. I'm pretty stingy with giving out 4 & 5 stars, but I am not big on giving 1 or 2 stars either, so it feels like the majority of what I read falls int..."I'm the opposite. I'm not too stingy with my 4s and a little more stingy with my 5s, but that may be because I'm pretty good at choosing books that I'm likely to really enjoy.
I get what Zaz means about ending up with 8.5 or 9.5 scores anyway on a 10 point scale, but I don't know if I'd agree. Somehow, for me anyway, I think I'd find it easier to distinguish between an 8 and a 9. I think there's really too much of a gap sometimes between a 3 (a book I liked, but had some aspects I really didn't like) and a 4 (a book I really enjoyed, but with some minor issues). I end up rating a lot of books 4 just because they are really a 3.5, but a 3 seems too low.
I give out 4s and 5s to almost everything - I tend to research books and I don't waste my time if I think I won't like it. I rarely end up in between because I am not stingy with my fives and my scale is based on enjoyment/worth vs annoyance. A three is where they are about equal - so if I am on the fence I ask myself about annoyance. Cannot give a five if several things bugged me; cannot give a four if many things bugged me; cannot give a three if I kept shaking my head; cannot give a two if I cannot find anything redeeming.
Excellent system, Marta. I try and research too, but am fooled occasionally. I only give 1s if I cannot finish a book. I also read many books that turn out to be 2s or 3s, but need to read the book to continue the series.
It's funny that I'm so stingy with my good ratings because if I'm looking at a book and I see that a lot of people give it a 3, I consider that kind of a bad rating, but I give 3s to books that I think are good.
For me, a 3 means it's middle of the road. It was okay, I was able to finish it, but it didn't really grab me. A 4 is a book I consider a pageturner. And, a 5? It has to impact me emotionally.
WOW this is interesting - I didn't know you could check out your average star rating. Mine is 3.85. 18% are 5 star and 51% 4 star. I find I do give lots of books 4 stars, I really enjoy them but not quite enough for 5 stars! I don't tend to finish the 1-2 stars, unless I'm reading to review (from the author or a program), or one I'm reading now, Sin and Desire is really bad, but I'm reading it for the challenge book - embarrassed to read in public. I would have given up long ago otherwise.
And I've just looked back on some I rated 5 stars and think I must have been particularly generous that day. I would probably only give them 4 now, but that's probably because I've read some awesome books since.
My average is 3.555 - 17% (loved, loved, loved, don't judge me! books)
4 - 38% ((Really enjoyed, would read more by this author)
3 - 32% (Liked enough to finish, might or might not read more by this author)
2 - 8% (Disliked, poor writing, bad editing, etc.)
1 - 4% (25) (Didn't finish because writing was very poor, editing was incredibly bad, story line was ridiculous and/or characters were completely horrid)
A lot of books that I dnf I don't rate at all simply because I am not interested in the book. It isn't bad per say, it just isn't my thing. I don't think that deserves a bad rating from me so I don't rate it at all.
Most books that I like get a 4; it has to be AMAZING to get a 5 from me. It's also possible that I had three glasses of wine while reading, instead of one. Alcohol induced 5-star ratings are a thing. :-)
Out of curiosity I just checked my average again for the first time since my original post in this thread. I figured since I've read close to 150 more books since then and added a few more that I'd read in the past, it's likely that my average changed. Turns out it is now 4.33 (down from 4.37 as of December 2015). Thinking about it, I think one of the reasons my average is so high is because I have quite a few books on the list that I'd read when I was much younger, and rated quite high. For example, I have Berenstain (I still refuse to believe it isn't Berenstein!) Bears books, Junie B. Jones, favourite picture books, etc. which are almost all rated 4s and 5s. Those definitely skew things toward the high end. I also rarely rate a book less than a 3 because I've been pretty good about picking books that I think I'd enjoy, and if I don't remember a book well enough, I don't rate at all. I never DNF books.
For me, my system is something like:
5 - Absolutely loved it! Excellent character development/writing/plot. Really enjoyed the whole "reading experience" and couldn't put it down.
4 - Really enjoyed it, and would like to read more by this author but there were a few small annoyances (ie. a bit predictable, irritating protagonist/side character). I could put the book down for a short time, but I was very motivated to keep reading it.
3 - Liked some things about it, but didn't really care much for the story and/or characters. Took me a very long time to get through (doesn't apply if the book itself is quite long)
2 - Didn't like it much at all. Serious issues with the writing, plot, and characters (or at least some of those elements, but often all of them). No motivation to keep reading.
1 - Hated it (so far, I don't think I have ever given a book a 1)
I do tend to be fairly generous with my ratings, especially because so many books for me are actually between two star ratings so I have to round them up or down. I'm generally more inclined to round up if anything.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Look of Love (other topics)Thérèse Raquin (other topics)
When I re-joined GoodReads I decided that I wasn't going to go back and add every book I'mever read but, rather, just the ones I'd read since joining or the ones I felt I remembered well enough to write a review for. So my read shelf is probably smaller than most.
My average is 3.17 - I mostly live in the 1-4 star range because I've very critical about what books get 5 stars. A book has to really blow me away for a 5-star rating. It has to the kind of book I'd buy hardcover at full price and re-read again and again to get that rating. Only 8.8% of my reviews are 5-star rated.
What about you guys? What is your rating style like?