That's funny. "A three." You realize that a rating of 3 contains no information. It's as if you didn't even rank it.
The thought that a 3 to you is a 4 to others just doesn't cut it with regards to ranking. Especially on GoodReads. Go look at any long list of books here. Nearly everyone of them ranks between 3.8 and 4.5. The rankings are essentially useless.
Again I state my case: reading a book is a binary choice. Either you read it or you don't. Imagine walking up to a librarian who's sitting in front of a vast set of shelves stacked with books. You have just one book to choose to spend your time with for the next week. You point to a book and ask the librarian "what about that one?" He shrugs his shoulders, "hmm, it's a 3," he says. OK, but should I read it? "It's a 3, " he repeats.
How helpful is that? Not at all. What you want him to do is go - "That's a reader, that one, is not." "Great," you think, "I'll take the reader."
Most choices in life are binary: eat that candy bar, or not. See that movie, or not. Take that job, or not. Read that book... What we want are clues as to what we should do with our binary choices.
The thought that a 3 to you is a 4 to others just doesn't cut it with regards to ranking. Especially on GoodReads. Go look at any long list of books here. Nearly everyone of them ranks between 3.8 and 4.5. The rankings are essentially useless.
Again I state my case: reading a book is a binary choice. Either you read it or you don't.
Imagine walking up to a librarian who's sitting in front of a vast set of shelves stacked with books. You have just one book to choose to spend your time with for the next week. You point to a book and ask the librarian "what about that one?" He shrugs his shoulders, "hmm, it's a 3," he says. OK, but should I read it? "It's a 3, " he repeats.
How helpful is that? Not at all. What you want him to do is go - "That's a reader, that one, is not." "Great," you think, "I'll take the reader."
Most choices in life are binary: eat that candy bar, or not. See that movie, or not. Take that job, or not. Read that book... What we want are clues as to what we should do with our binary choices.