The Hobbit, or There and Back Again question

Even though effort has been made to standardize rating, especially for comparison sites like this one, rating scales are always subjective and differ person to person. I felt like I had to outline my rating scale as I started to assign ratings when I joined this site. To me, 5 stars isn't the best written book, or most famous- it is a book that I enjoy over and over again and would recommend to anyone. Four stars to me are books that I would recommend to fans or the genre, but not everyone. I won't go into the other ratings since I listed them on my profile, but you can see that my ratings probably will not change very much, but they could change. An example might be that when I first started reading Fantasy, authors such as Eddings and Feist were the best I had read and what I would recommend. Now there is no way I would recommend them due to the amount of superior fantasy books I have read.

So, to answer your question, I would say yes ratings can and should be able to change. That being said, a work being sexist(would you explain to me why this would change your rating of a book? I don't understand) would not be a reason to change an rating in my mind- discovering better writing or a change in tastes would be. To quote Oscar Wilde, "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

Not sure if you're asking if goodreads should let us change our minds, or if we as readers should be willing to admit we've changed our minds. But in either case, I say Yes! For all the reasons you list and more, I know I've changed my mind on books I read years ago.

I've also changed my mind on books read & reviewed recently. Say I'm discussing a book in a group. I may not have liked it much when I read it to get ready for the discussion, but then the discussion made me appreciate more of what the author was sharing, or made me understand a bit that I thought was confusing, or whatever - I've given books more stars after discussions.

I've also read a book, enjoyed it, rated & reviewed it promptly, then over the next few days felt a 'sour after-taste' about it. I've come to realize I rated it too highly, and taken off a star or two.

So, yes, while I can't say outright 'ratings should change' as you phrased it, I definitely say 'ratings must be free to be changeable.' I don't think my rating of The Hobbit would change if I were to reread it, though....

It depends on the book, I think. The Hobbit is a classic, and I wouldn't expect one's star rating for it to change over time. But I've read some gripping bestsellers that I lowered my rating of as time passed after reading them, because they didn't leave me with any deep impression. Yes, I loved them while reading them and right after I closed the book. But any real substance was missing, and once the thrill of being entertained had passed, I wasn't so impressed.

When I joined GoodReads, I was toured through a host of books (many of them read decades ago) as part of the sign-up procedure. So I slogged through rating and rating and . . . rating!

Obviously, many of my ratings were based on foggy memories from childhood.

As it chanced, I went back and re-read some of those old tomes. A few held up under my current viewpoint. Many did not.

I planned to leave my initial ratings, using the "snapshot" approach: this was my opinion of the book upon reading. But then I noticed a title on my list where the high rating really grated! So I changed it. Which led to the changing of another rating . . . and another.

Now my ratings are an unfortunate hodge-podge! Some reflect my child's view, others my current view after re-reading.

The obvious solution would be to write reviews. Then I could present both why I liked the book as a young reader and why I feel differently now.

But . . . will I write those reviews? Maybe, over time, I will. Then again . . .

Thanks, Richard, for starting the discussion! It makes quite clear the limitations inherent in ratings. While I doubt I will go back and review all (or even many) books on my GoodReads list, perhaps I will make an effort to review (as well as rate) new additions.

When I first finish a book (finish being the operative word), I almost always like it much better than I do an hour or a day or a week or a year later. Do I wait to rate it? Do I go back and change it? What about older books that I read 20-30-40 years ago? Should I rate them at all? I read more books per week in 1970 than I do now--should I even consider them for a site like this? If I don't I'm leaving out my "bookish heritage" but is it fair to rate them?

With all these issues plus the different kinds of books I read for different reasons I simply can't fit my reactions and changing reactions to things into a static five-slot scale.

So to make it easier on myself, I don't worry about ratings too much. I make them and change them when I want. However, I try really really hard to say something meaningful about my reactions to the books.

I rate books based on my first impression of them, my opinion may change over time but when I read peoples rating I want to know what they thought when they first read it (and therefore what I am likely to expect) not what they thought after reading it multiply times, so that's what I give in my ratings.

Some of the books i've rated, however, were rated years after I actually read the book as I rated them from memory when I joined this site. But when I reread them I may update them.

Hello
Usually I don’t change my opinion about a book. I change the way I “feel” the book.
I read the “Lord of The Rings” when I was 16 years old and I love it. I read it again in my middle 30’s and I love it again but I had a different perception of the book. Some details were very emotional to me when I was 16 years old and know when I read it again it just feel normal.
When a book is good is always good.

I do not know if you understand what I am trying to say (English is not my natural language).

I read "The Hobbit" only I was almost 40 years old. So since I did not read it in a different age I have no base for comparison.

Why should we be limited to only one review and rating for a book? Not only could our opinions change with time, but we could have multiple opinions and interpretations even after one reading.

If you really really liked them the first time and were addicted to them. then you should give credit to that; I would like to share my point of view: when you see a movie for the first time you value the plot, the acting and the production or Special Fx. then fast forward in time you watch the same movie and you see it as corny because of the Dated aspects of it, like clothes, jargon, Poor Fx, etc.

A book is based 50% on what's written and 50% on You and your experiences, your mood, imagination and maturity. we don't enjoy the same activities that we did say 10 years before or more. but we had a good time. so my point is Be true to what you feel and what you felt, you don't have to change the rating unless there are themes that you feel are in contradiction with who you are in this moment in life.

Reading is Fun and instructive! do as you like. you don't have to rate if you don't feel like it.

If you really really liked them the first time and were addicted to them. then you should give credit to that; I would like to share my point of view: when you see a movie for the first time you value the plot, the acting and the production or Special Fx. then fast forward in time you watch the same movie and you see it as corny because of the Dated aspects of it, like clothes, jargon, Poor Fx, etc.

A book is based 50% on what's written and 50% on You and your experiences, your mood, imagination and maturity. we don't enjoy the same activities that we did say 10 years before or more. but we had a good time. so my point is Be true to what you feel and what you felt, you don't have to change the rating unless there are themes that you feel are in contradiction with who you are in this moment in life.

Reading is Fun and instructive! do as you like. you don't have to rate if you don't feel like it.

You're entitled to change your mind and how you express that publicly.

For me, the rating is how I felt about the book at the time I read it. If I re-read a book, I might change the rating and make a note about why it changed in the review. However, if I read a book as a little girl and absolutely love it, it stands to reason that as a teenager I might not feel the same way and, again, as a young woman I might feel another (third) way. Our tastes and impressions of books change as we grow. For me, the way I use the ratings here is a snapshot for how I felt at the time I read the book, not me looking back on it 20 or more years down the line and saying, "As a 34 year old, that book isn't as enjoyable for me as it was when I was 14 years old." - Especially if the book is targeted at 14 year olds.

I'm currently reading the Wheel of Time books and I'm tempted to give them all 3 or 4 stars - don't get me wrong I love many of the characters and the story itself, and I can't wait to find out how it's all going to end but sometimes it does feel like you have to slog through some of the lesser points in the story before you catch up with the main guys again - I mean I absolutely love some of the subplots but sometimes I'm left confused as to who's involved with what plot and sometimes who the hell some of the characters are!

I have found that every time I go back and change a rating, I am making the rating lower. I think this is a result of looking at books with more experience and perspective than I had the first time around. For me, truly great 5 star books will never change. If a book really merits a top rating, changing the rating will never be a consideration.

Should the original originality be taken into account with older books, or since many of their devices have been overused since, should we rate them lower because they've become cliched?
People in my circles run into this all the time.

Kinda in the same vein of this conversation, I read all of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books I could get my hands on in the late 90's and early 2000's and was thoroughly addicted. Now that the series is finally coming to a close, I thought it would be a good idea to start over and reread the 7 or 8 books I already had before moving on to the new ones. Well, I got to tell you, the first couple books aren't as good as I remembered, kinda bummed me out.

Now I find myself with 2 moral dilemmas, 1. do I keep slogging through the back catalogue of the series to get caught up (I really do want to see how it all ends) and 2. what rating do i go with, the 5 stars from when i was younger or the lesser now that my tastes are a bit different.

Man, I thought reading was supposed to be for pleasure, lol

What a good question! I think it depends on how one views the rating system. Is it a static snapshot of your impression of the book at the moment when you initially read, locked in time for you to look back on and gauge where you are now, or is it not? I personally like to think of it as an initial snapshot of how I feel about a book upon completion. If I change my view over time, I'd go back and make a comment about it with an explanation as to why the higher/lower rating after the fact, but leave the initial rating. That said, I understand others' views on why one should change ratings.

I loved The Hobbit and LOTR, coming to them in my 30s, and that is one series where my 5 star rating stands :) Brilliant, brilliant work.

I`ve tried to go back to reading Tolkein and it`s just that I find his use of the English language so annoyingly awkward. There was a time when I could read the King James version of the Bible, but no longer. And yet for me, both are masterpieces. Upon initially reading them in my younger days, I was so overwhelmingly affected by both.

Should ratings change over time?

Why, yes.
One should, however, give it proper reflection if for example the fact that one thoroughly enjoyed reading The Hardy Boys as a kid, and gave them an according rating, should go back and change this rating to reflect his view of these books as a grown up, so evaluating them from a viewpoint they were never written for.

But I do think that reviews should reflect changes we go through if we feel strongly about something, like open sexism in novels. I know I would have given St. Peter’s Wolf probably a three leaning on four star rating the first time I read it. But now that I’m older and more aware of such topics I believe that due to the way he handles sexual assault in this book I don’t think it deserves more than a generous two star rating.