Elaine > Status Update

I'm always blown away by mid to high 4 ratings, too. Now that I'm getting a little bit pickier about accepting friend requests, I look at avgs more and judge with other things.
I think sometimes people don't rate books they don't like, are less demanding, are just very good at choosing like you said, their rating criteria is skewed a bit higher (baseline 3 stars or don't like is still 3), or in small cases I've heard some people say they think they won't get arcs if they don't rate at least a 4.
I'm sitting at a 2.86 after 2,000 ratings, they probably think I'm miserable, lol.

I was just so suprised when I first noticed it.. If they really love most of the books they read I'm honestly jealous. LoL I wish I did too. But the more books read the more pickier I get. It's really hard for me to find a book I love lately. :( There's plenty of books I like or think are ok but so few I really love.
I can also understand not rating the book if you didn't finish it (I do that too) but I don't get rating a book 3 stars if you didn't like it. But that's just me, different people, different ideas I guess. I also don't get rating higher just to get arcs.. I get plenty of them even if my ratings are far from shiny all 5 stars. :) Reviewing and rating books is supposed to be helpful for other readers when deciding about a book and giving a book 4 or 5 stars even if you didn't like it is not helpful. In fact, I tend to be distrustful of a (new) book that only has good reviews and high ratings.
I'm really not trying to judge anybody for the way they decide to rate the books they read, I was just surprised that's all.. And, I admit, maybe also a little jealous. ;)

Interesting - do you know, I've never even noticed that?! Mine is 3.86 which is surprising because I'm not especially forgiving!! But - I think because I review a lot of audio and tend to go for the narrators I like, my ratings for some books are higher than they might otherwise be, because I generally combine the rating for the narration with the rating for the story (and some books are marginally better when they're well-narrated!)

Caz, I only just noticed it now by pure luck. And yes I agree, I tend to rate audio with a good narrator higher than if I'd read the same book myself or if the narrator wasn't to my liking. A good narrator can make or break a book for me. If the story isn't to my liking nothing can change that but a good narrator can push a book from 4 to 5 stars easily for me.

Elaine wrote: "Caz, I only just noticed it now by pure luck. And yes I agree, I tend to rate audio with a good narrator higher than if I'd read the same book myself or if the narrator wasn't to my liking. A good ..."

Yes, or a 3 star to a 4 star. As an example, Tessa Dare's current series. If I'd read the book I'd probably be hard pressed to rate them more than 3 stars. But Mary Jane Wells is such a good narrator that she makes them work on at least some level.

I’ve read more than what I list here, much much more. But I didn’t bother to rate a book which I thought less than average, why should I? I wasted my time enough by reading those awful stuff! However I will rate a book if that book had a lot of potential to be a good one but ended as a big disappointment. But I definitely will rate a book if I love it :)

Ira, thanks for the explanation on how you rate books. I understand what you mean with not bothering with books you didn't like. But I'm forgetful and sometimes I can't remember if I've read some book before or not and seeing those stars next it helps me decide if I should read it (again) or not. So I rate almost all the books I read even if I just rate it without writing a review. But to each their own. If your way works for you (and your friends) then perfect, I'm glad. :) I was just so surprised when I first saw the high average rating I just had to mention it. :)

Caz, I haven't listened a to a Tessa Dare novel yet. Maybe I should give it a try because I wasn't really impressed with the last one I (literally) just finished. I usually like to listen to the longer books with 500 or more pages because I'm too lazy to read that myself but want to read them anyway. Those are perfect to listen to in the car daily. :)