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Your reading rules
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My main rules are:-Don't mix books from different series (learned the hard way, I tend to have weird crossover dreams)
-One book at a time (exception applies to reading my own drafts)
-A few days of break when switching series
-Try to read series start-to-end if complete, though breaks for short stand-alone books are possible after 2-3 books.
-Read at my own pace (the most important one)
-Don't blindly trust the hype about popular books
Then, there are a few weaker rules, more like weights against: I'm much less likely to read books from incomplete series where the wait time is over a year, and much less likely to read a book when the e-book has the same price as the paperback (traditional publishers tend to do this a lot and it irks me a lot as e-reader when the costs are not the same - ~50% of paperback cost is caused by print and those should not be carried over to e-book version).
YouKneeK wrote: "Yet another thing that affects the scale is that Goodreads’ suggested meanings for the stars isn’t even a proper scale; it assumes you never hate a book."
The way I see it is if I really hated something, it'd go to DNF and thus zero.
Tomas, the main problem with pricing is that the ebook prices are often set by the publisher (they list their books on Amazon as though Amazon were eBay) and the paper prices are controlled by Amazon
For me it's:1) Read what appeals to you, not what appeals to someone else.
2) Have more than one book going at a time. If one grows stale, keep things fresh and switch to another! This is easier if you can compartmentalize information, and really helps stave off burnout.
2b) Always be reading at least one nonfiction book. Escapism is great, but reality will always be real, and the more you know about the world around you, the better off you will be.
3) Find and follow reviewers you know and trust. Don't take as gospel the word of the reviewer who happens to have the biggest number next to their name. We all know what they say about one man's trash.
4) Don't discriminate against or discount the value of a work on the basis of medium. Graphic novels, comics, and manga are just as valid as prose. Every medium has its fair share of gems and dumpster fires.
5) Enjoy the variety of formats we have available to us as readers (ebooks, audiobooks, physical copies, etc.).
6) Only buy authors you know are good for it. If you're unsure about an author/trying them out for the first time, borrow from the library.
for 6, try downloading and reading a sample of the book from Amazon
Beth wrote: "Yeah, 5-stars are incredibly rare for me, and 1-stars even rarer, because there's no reason to finish what would shake down to a 1-star book. So basically I have a 3-star rating system, with the od..."Sounds how I think I rate and I just checked my Read listings. Out of 1600+ books/audios/stories, fourteen 5 stars and three 1 stars. Have only rated stuff that I either really remember or have read in the last 7 years or so. Stuff from over 10 years ago gets an entry but no rating or review.
CBRetriever wrote: "Tomas, the main problem with pricing is that the ebook prices are often set by the publisher (they list their books on Amazon as though Amazon were eBay)..."If a paperback costs $10, around $5 is production cost (printing, storage, transport), around $1,5 is author's royalty and the remaining $3,5 is split between the book seller and the publisher (who uses that, at least in the early days, to cover marketing, editing, and other costs).
When the same book, in e-book format, is priced the same $10, in most cases the author gets the same $1,5 (or just a little more) and the retailer's cut remains roughly the same, while the publisher takes (most of) the extra $5 (which would be the production cost of a paperback) for themselves - thus ripping off both the reader and the author.
Which is the point I am making: publishers are ripping off both the people preferring e-books AND the authors by pricing e-books at the same price as a paperback (where the price is, by a great part, set by production cost) despite not sharing those costs.
As a result, an author gets more money from self-publishing an e-book at $4 (assuming the usual self-published royalty between 50 and 70 percent) than from traditionally publishing it at $10 (with the usual trad royalty around 10-15%). And, for that same reason, I'll rather buy a less-known self-published book where I know most of the money actually supports the author.
interesting article about what different formats of a book cost to produce (Hard bounds are way more overpriced than ebooks)http://www.davidderrico.com/cost-brea...
Some costs, if a book is released in both HB, PB and Digital versions have to be split between all versions: editing, formatting, advertising, management costs of the publisher etc. In addition the ebook also has storage costs (servers, electricity, human support, and a facility or facilities to hold the servers). It might not be as much as storage for paperbooks, but it does exist. Shipping costs are list as digital shipping doesn't cost as much as physical shipping, but often there's a charge for shipping for physical books.
Anyway, back on subject with yet another rule that I don't think I mentioned before: use something to keep track of what you've read/purchased. I purchased many a mystery, fantasy, science fiction or bodice ripper book for a second and third time in the past because the cover had changed and I couldn't remember whether or not I've read it before.
I’ve read that all of the sunk costs for producing a hardback book (paper, editing, art, printing, shipping, storage, advertising, etc.) are around $3 on average.This info came to light during the big Amazon v. Hachette fight a few years ago, and both paper and printing costs have dropped since then. So the publishers’ standard line about material cost increases affecting cover prices was just BS all these decades.
Jake wrote: "For me it's:1) Read what appeals to you, not what appeals to someone else.
2) Have more than one book going at a time. If one grows stale, keep things fresh and switch to another! This is easie..."
I agree with rule 2b! Used to avoid nonfiction like the plague when I was younger (oops!) but now I don't feel grounded unless I have a nonfiction book cracked open amidst the fiction...
I thought I didn't had any reading rules but after reading this post I discovered I actually have many...One I didn't see (or read over) is that I always give the same answer to people who ask me if they would like the book I'm currently reading.
No.
Bit of a harsh rule but I got sucked into debates about why my preferred genres are actually very good way too often. My country doesn't have many authors who write sci-fi and/or fantasy and if they do they mainly write children's books so people have Opinions™.
Another rule is if a book sounds interesting first buy the Ebook. Unless I'm really really sure I will like it. Or if the story is so special it needs to be consumed in physical format. It's a very arbitrary rule.
And even though I like buying books second hand I don't mind buying books for the full price. Somehow it feels better when I know the author will get paid (double even when I first bought the Ebook) for a story that gave me so much joy.
Ada, I too am very hesitant to recommend something or answer the "would I like it?" questions. Unless I'd really know the person's tastes, I'd probably just tell them to read the blurb and see if the theme interests them.
... that's such good advice. I don't know why I never did just that.
My rules for reading are pretty simple:• Read Books Off your shelves (Audible or Kindle too) first and foremost. There’s a reason you actually bought them or someone gave them too you and I’ve very very rarely been disappointed.
• I used to be a monogamous reader but since the advent of audio and e books, and the fact that I read more poetry and nonfiction, I always have several on the go at the same time. That’s not a rule per se, but I usually have at least one Fiction for myself, on middle grade that I’m reading to my son, one audio book, one ebook, one book of poetry and one nonfiction in progress at any one time!!
• mix up the genres/styles if possible.
• It’s ok not to finish a book. It may just be poor timing and doesn’t mean I won’t like it if I pick it up at a later date.
That’s all I can think of for now.
The only rule I seem to set for myself seems to be. If I start a book and enjoy it, focus entirely on that series or author so long as it stays good or until there are no more unread. Ive done this with many series, and trying to pick up something new while the old series is still unfinished just means I now have 2 whole series to finish, maybe I'm just a completionist...
1. Maximum of 5 currently reading books at a time. I don't have trouble keeping books straight, but I just don't want the currently reading list to get out of hand.2. Read a minimum of 50 pages before allowing myself to DNF. Pretty much every book deserves that chance. If I'm not really enjoying a book but think there's a chance it will get better, I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt, so I DNF pretty rarely.
3. Write a short review for every book. I never summarize plot - there are enough reviews that do that already! I tend to keep them short because I only focus on my opinions of the various aspects of the book - prose, characters, plot, pacing.
4. Mix and match series at will. I tend to be kept pretty busy with monthly book club reads, so there are many series I haven't finished but intend to - and that's okay.
5. Never reread. I have a pretty good memory for most books, and there's just so much new stuff out there that I'd like to read. I'm sure as I get older and forget more I will revise this rule.
@Ryan_Dash The reviews I write also skip the synopsis. I figure by the time people get to mine, they know what it’s about basically, so I focus on my opinions, what I liked, how it made me feel and if there was something I didn’t like, I’ll mention that too. I reread, but very rarely. I find I’m rereading childhood favorites a lot, because I’m reading them to my 9 year old. The books I read to him are ever so slightly above his reading level. He could probably read them himself no problem, but it’s a tradition that we are loathe to give up.
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Yet another thing that affects the scale is that Goodreads’ suggested meanings for the stars isn’t even a proper scale; it assumes you never hate a book. If you hover over the stars, 2 stars is “ok” and 1 star is a mild “did not like it”.
Even setting aside the widely varying personal methods of choosing a star rating, one segment of people are thinking of the ratings on a completely different scale from another segment. Some people rate based on Goodreads’ suggestions. Other people either don’t notice those suggestions or they’re rebellious like me and see them but refuse to use them. I don’t want to rate differently here compared to how I rate everywhere else, and I don’t like the skewed meanings.