[2024] Poll 16 Voting

[dalex]

I've never understand "spoiler alerts." Unless the book in question is one I'm currently reading or is the next book I read, I've long forgotten anything that someone might have revealed about it by the time I do read it. And I consider myself to have a rather good memory.

[Nadine in NY]

dalex wrote: "I've never understand "spoiler alerts." Unless the book in question is one I'm currently reading or is the next book I read, I've long forgotten anything that someone might have revealed about it b..."



just trust us that some of us do remember and it does ruin the reading experience

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Nadine in NY wrote: "just trust us that some of us do remember and it does ruin the reading experience"

Agree. I've never been able to just forget a spoiler.

[LeahS]

For me, it depends on the type of book. If I'm looking to see if something fills a particular prompt, I will sometimes look at a synopsis and, if it's a literary fiction type of book, I don't really care, because my interest is in what the author does with the story. And of course there are books you could read over and over without knowledge of the ending spoiling the story. They're often the ones where you know what the ending will be, it's just the getting there. I don't think anyone's astonished by the ending of Pride and Prejudice, for example.

However, no one wants to know the end of a mystery or thriller in advance, and of course there was a lot of anger when people spoiled a particular incident in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

When I am thinking of putting a book on my TBR, especially if I am going to spend money on it, I will look at reviews. Usually there aren't really specific spoilers on GR that aren't marked. Professional sources like the New York Times Book Review are way worse. They will practically summarize the whole plot! (Why are they getting paid for that?)

Also blurbs inside a book cover are often way too informative. However, if it's been a while since I bought the book, I will probably have forgotten the details, and I deliberately don't look at those or the back cover when I start to read.

I agree with those who look at low rated reviews to see what bothered people. If it is the fact that a few swear words are used, or the fact that the plot isn't chronological, no problem. But other things will influence me avoiding it. Also sometimes I get partway in and find the book dull/confusing/depressing, so I'll look at reviews, which usually confirm that it won't get better, so I feel justified quitting.

I don't post any reviews on GR except in specific groups on threads like this. I feel like there are so many that nobody cares. I used to review all the time on Audible, when it was a smaller community, and I used reviews a lot there to find out about the narrator as well as the book. I even had people who "followed" me, but they took that away years ago. So I just give stars, which is what I do on GR, just assign stars. And I don't use the inflated GR system where 2 is ok. In my mind, 5 is exceptional and I probably only give it once every 40 books. I give a lot of 4's and 3's - very good, and good but not special. Two is definitely flawed - unbelievable, badly written, etc. I don't think I have ever given a 1 - I would just stop reading.

[Joanna G]

I'm exactly with you on what the star system should be, Robin! Every once in awhile when I'm debating between options and I hover over the two stars and it pops up as "it was ok" I wonder if I'm rating too harshly. But it works for me, and I think makes more sense.

I will read reviews before, during and after.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I'm similar, Robin. I only give 1 star to books I DNF. If I finish it, it gets at least 2 stars. But I'm a bit more generous with my 5 stars... out of the 84 books I've read this year, I've given 14 five stars.

[Joanna G]

Only 2 / 101 five stars for me. But I really wish Goodreads could do half stars - if something is between 3 and 4, I'll round up or down. But if it's between 4 and 5, I always round down. So quite a few of my 4 star reads would really be 4.5!

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Yes, half stars would be good. I just checked and I have 7 5-star books this year out of 221 (retirement is great for reading!), so 1 out of 30.

[Heather L]

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "just trust us that some of us do remember and it does ruin the reading experience"

Agree. I've never been able to just forget a spoiler."


Spoilers are why I’ve still not read Gone Girl. My sister had just loaned it to me, and before I could start it stupid media/journalists ruined it for me. Every time I let a few years go by and think of giving it a try, the Media spoils it again. I don’t want to know how a book (or movie) ends before I read (or see) it.

While I do read the back cover blurb for most books, I rarely read reviews. If I’m waffling over whether to buy/read a particular book, then I might look to see what GR friends have to say about it. Even then there are some people I trust more than others. I tend to ignore those who seem to give everything they read five stars and look at the 2-, 3-, or 4-star reviews that are more honest.

[Jillian]

I don’t give out many 1 stars (8 since joining GR), but 3 were from last year none so far this year. I also don’t give out a ton of 5 stars. I’m mainly a 4 or 3 star person. I don’t consider 3 stars bad rather it was an okay book. (If I don’t like a book but I’m not the intended audience I will skip rating a book. I also don’t like to give low ratings to self published/indie authors. The lack of 1/2 stars also sometimes leaves me to skip rating a book).

I recently had a discussion on FB with someone on rating and reviews. They felt anyone who does not give a book a 5 star should write a review to explain what was wrong with the book (like it was something owned to the author). I consider 3 and 4 books okay and good books just not my favorite. They also thought people only read books with an 4.5-5 average rating. (That seems really high to me. I personally wouldn’t trust a 5 star average rating. There is always someone who doesn’t like a book). This was weird to me since I often prefer a 4 star book over a 5 star book (those can put me in a slump).

[LeahS]

I never star rate or rely on star ratings. I don't know if this is unusual in this group. If I did star rate, I would expect a 5 star book to be exceptionally good.

[Dubhease]

I have only given four different books 1 star ratings. I will stand by each of those reviews.

Two were for prompts. One was the last book of a series. And one was written by a friend of a friend (and my friend made me read it.)

[Alicia]

Ha, I've given 10 books 1-star ratings this year. All of them I would have DNF'd if i didn't want to count them for the challenge lol.

But I've given 31 5-star ratings

[Bec]

This talk of what star ratings we have given books made me curious about mine. I know I give a lot of 4 stars, as for me, 4 means I enjoyed the book and wanted to get into it. For me to rate a 5 it has to have something extra special and blow me away - I can't really explain it, but must stand out from the pack. I don't think I would have rated 1 or 2 as I now stop reading if I'm not enjoying a book and I do give 3s for books that I enjoyed enough to finish, but not in the same league as my 4 star books.

This year out of 120 books I've read/listened to, I've given :
* 3 stars -11 books,
* 3.5 stars (I do halves on my spreadsheet :P) - 19 books
* 4 stars - 81 books
* 4.5 stars - 5 books
* 5 stars - 4 books

Obviously my mood at the time impacts on my ratings. I look back on some and think, wow I gave that 5 stars!

[Nadine in NY]

I am glad we don't have half stars, because sometimes it's hard enough to decide what rating to give. Having only five choices makes it easier.
5 = excellent
4 = very good
3 = good
2 = so/so
1 = bad

I never really think of that as being "inflated" but I guess if the median were truly "ok" then it would by rights be: very good, good, ok, bad, very bad ... but since most of us are not reading randomly, we are also curating our choices so it makes sense that most ratings will be better than bad!!

I try not to spend too much time thinking about it, I just go with my gut: did I like this? or not? Five stars doesn't mean "this was the bestest book ever" it just means I enjoyed it a lot. My ratings have nothing to do with the quality of the writing and everything to do with my own reading experience. (Of course I am more likely to have a good reading experience if the book is well written!)

I rarely choose books based on their average GR rating, so I don't think the rating really matters that much.

I just checked my ratings this year to date and I knew it would be evenly distributed but I was surprised at HOW evenly it was distributed:
5 star 26%
4 star 20%
3 star 20%
2 star 20%
1 star 4%
DNF 10%

[Kendra]

I have it in my profile that my ratings are based on my emotional response to a book, not it's relative worth. It's like with food - I'd rather have a bag of Cheetos than some gourmet super healthy snack, even though I know which is better for me or which took more skill to make.

My 3 ratings tend to cover a lot of ground - They're good enough to get a thumbs up, but they could be only okay, or good with a few problems, or good but forgettable. But my ratings do skew high, because I generally don't read books if I don't think I'll enjoy them, and if I start and realize I'm not enjoying it, I usually DNF.

Since we're comparing statistic, here's my breakdown for the year so far:
5 stars - 31%
4 stars - 39%
3 stars - 28%
2 stars - 2%
1 star - 0%
DNFS - 3%

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Kendra wrote: "I have it in my profile that my ratings are based on my emotional response to a book, not it's relative worth. It's like with food - I'd rather have a bag of Cheetos than some gourmet super healthy..."

Yes, that's why I could give 4* to both a humorous
Regency romance and a serious literary work. They are different but both are very good at what they are doing. Some of my 3* books are ones I think many people would like but for various reasons they didn't stand out for me. Of course, even for my 5* books, I wouldn't recommend that "everyone" read a particular book. We all have some preferences - I don't care for vampires, zombies, etc. no matter how well written the book is. But I will read almost anything with pirates and sailing ships. We had a Weekly Question about that recently.

I just know that after so many years reading, that somewhere along in a book, I feel, "This is a 5-star book" and I don't change my mind, unless there was a terrible ending, but I don't think that's ever happened.

[Joy D]

I keep track of my ratings. I only give 5 stars to my favorites. I rate based on personal experience of reading the book (and I'm not sure how to do it any other way). My ratings skew higher than average since I try to read only those I think I will enjoy.

Average is 3.7
5 - 7%
4 - 59%
3 - 28%
2 - 5%
1 - 1%

I would like a half-star rating to be available, as I would rate many books 3.5 or 4.5 but since we don't have the option, I always round down.

[Ellie]

Jillian wrote: "They felt anyone who does not give a book a 5 star should write a review to explain what was wrong with the book ..."

I think people have started equating average with bad rather than actually being somewhere in the middle. 3 stars is an average rating and sometimes average is just fine. If someone thought my novel was average I'd be OK with that, it could be awful 🤣

[Thomas]

My rating system is this
5 star- no significant aspect I don’t like
4 star- mostly good but something let it down a bit
3 star- some things I liked somethings I don’t
2 star- mostly bad but some redeeming features
1 star- nothing I liked at all

[Kat]

I've been having a year with so many 3 star reads. I'm not sure if it's the books I'm choosing or the way I feel that is making me score so low. I almost never give 1 star because I would just stop reading it and I can't rate something I didn't finish.

I'm still telling people about my 2 favourite books of last year and I'm not sure anything I've read this year has stayed with me that much. Hopefully I find some gems in the last couple of months.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

I was curious what my rating spread looks like:

5 star - 16%
4 star - 26%
3 star - 34%
2 star - 15%
1 star - 7%

Much more gaussian than I would have guessed. I rate based on how much I personally enjoyed reading the book, not based on some objective assessment of its quality. I'm not sure that an objective assessment of a book is even possible.

[dalex]

I'm always surprised that people consider 3 Stars a bad rating. In my opinion a 3 Star book is just a solidly average book, neither good nor bad.

My rating system is simple:
5 - Excellent
4 - Very good
3 - Good
2 - Fair

Half stars indicate that some minor thing prevented the book from making it to the next full star rating.

My rating distribution this year:

5 Star - 7%
4.5 Stars - 6%
4 Stars - 24%
3.5 Stars - 11%
3 Stars - 16%
2.5 Stars - 1%
2 Stars - 3%

Average rating for the year is 3.6.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

2+ Stars - 7%
3+ Stars - 12%
3.5+ Stars - 18%
4+ Stars - 19%
4.5+ Stars - 27%
5+ Stars - 17%

I'm not surprised by my layout... I generally only pick up books I know I'll be interested in or have personal recommendations about. My average rating is 3.97.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

I usually only go with 2-4 stars. 5 has to be exceptional, and 1 is exceptionally awful!

Heather L wrote: "Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Spoilers are why I’ve still not read Gone Girl. My sister had just loaned it to me, and before I could start it stupid media/journalists ruined it for me. Every time I let a few years go by and think of giving it a try, the Media spoils it again. I don’t want to know how a book (or movie) ends before I read (or see) it.
"

It's on my list as well - although I've managed to remain spoiler free on it thus far. Touch wood. Maybe we should buddy read it sometime?

[Joanne]

I was curious about my rating too. I agree with what Robin commented about books that have a "5-star feeling". There is sometimes a feeling I get while reading that this is a 5-star book. Otherwise, if I really liked it, it gets 4 stars. Most of my books are 3 or 4 stars.

2023
5★ - 4/48 (8%)
4★ - 24/48 (50%)
3★ - 19/24 (40%)
2★ - 0
1★ - 1/48 (2%)

All-time
5★ - 12%
4★ - 39%
3★ - 32%
2★ - 11%
1★ - 2%

[Joy D]

dalex wrote: "I'm always surprised that people consider 3 Stars a bad rating. In my opinion a 3 Star book is just a solidly average book, neither good nor bad..."
This surprises me too. For me, 3 stars is a good read - something I liked overall (though there may have also been a few drawbacks). I don't regret reading any of the books I've given 3 stars.

[Irene]

This isn't intentional, but I've always considered 3 stars to be a mediocre rating. I know Goodreads defines it as "liked it" but I'm used to thinking of it in school terms, like a score of 3 out of 5, or 60% (which is almost 50% and would be a failing grade in school). So my 3 star books are closer to what GR labels 2 stars ("it was ok"). In my opinion, "it was ok" seems too generous of a descriptor for a book that you gave 2 out of 5 possible stars.

The way I look at star ratings:
5 - literally a 10 out of 10, wouldn't have changed anything about it.
4 - really liked it, but there were probably a couple things I didn't love about it (maybe it felt slightly too long, I didn't like how something was resolved, etc)
3 - found it medicore/unexceptional. I didn't enjoy reading it but it was tolerable and probably not objectively horrible.
2 - really didn't like it, probably had to force myself to finish it
1 - absolutely hated it, and it was probably problematic too.

I'm glad we don't have half stars because I'm too indecisive as it is, but I do think my 4 star ratings encompass a bit too big of a range (from "liked it" to "really liked it").

A breakdown of my ratings from this year:
(I've excluded childhood favorites that I reread this year)

5 stars - 6 books
4 stars - 16 books
3 stars - 9 books
2 stars - 12 books
1 stars - 11 books

And I agree with a lot of you that I rate books on personal enjoyment (and a little on value, because I'll round up if I think I couldn't enjoy it for personal problems). I'll give 5 stars to a fluffy romance novel that advertises itself as a fluffy romance novel if I found it to be perfect for what it is. I gave The Velveteen Rabbit 5 stars not because I necessarily want to reread it all the time or buy multiple copies of it (which is how I often feel about my 5 star reads), but because I think it is perfect as a picture book for children. I always feel bad about giving lower ratings to books where I am obviously not the target demographic (such as books for academics in specific fields, books for little kids, etc.)

[Irene]

dalex wrote: "I'm always surprised that people consider 3 Stars a bad rating. In my opinion a 3 Star book is just a solidly average book, neither good nor bad.

My rating system is simple:
5 - Excellent
4 - Very..."

Would you say that your opinion of 3 star books is closer aligned to how GR defines a 2 star book - "it was ok" or to how it defines 3 stars - "liked it"? It's really interesting to see how we all interpret the ratings differently.

[Jillian]

For me 3 stars means I liked it. I really like cozy mysteries, but most of them are 3 stars. They just don’t have the same intensity as my 4 or 5 star books, which is what I want when I read them. They have fairly predictable plot, characters and setting.

2 stars is pretty much covers everything I don’t like.

1 stars are for popular books that I really didn’t like.

5 star books are ones I just really enjoyed even if the are some problematic parts. It has more to due with how I feel than anything else.

4 stars are just a little bit better than a 3 star book and probably just are more of a feeling than anything definable.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

For me, 3 stars is a good book; I liked it, I had a good time, I just don't have any particular feelings about it. 2 stars is a book I had problems with but isn't horrible. 1 star is a book I hated. I don't often finish 1 star books but if I do, it's probably because it was short and I felt like I might as well finish it off. Or it was an ARC and I feel obligated.

[LeahS]

I don't know if this is accessible outside the UK but:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006...

Mainly interviews with authors but you might something to read here.