Book Snails Book Group discussion
Reading Talk
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Choosing & Rating Books
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► 1) What influences you to put a book on your To Be Read list? Cover art? Average rating? Well-known author? Back cover description? Free? On bestseller list? GR reviews? Reading the preview? Your gut instinct?
► 2) When RATING a book here, do you always round up/down to the nearest star? Or do you round on a case-by-case basis?
Do you use the GR scale* literally, or interpret it in your own way?
*1 star = did not like it
2 star = it was okay
3 star = liked it
4 star = really liked it
5 star = it was
Ex: In the common instance of a 3.5 star rating in your head, how many stars do you give the book? How do you rate an "average" book?
I don't usually round up/down unless (view spoiler)
► 3) Are there certain things that make you NOT choose a book?For example, perhaps you avoid anything in the category of "chick lit" or "science fiction." Or maybe you know that you will not enjoy books with certain themes, excessive cursing, unreliable narrators, or violence towards critters. Perhaps you think "floating head" cover art is stupid?
For me, a pretty good indicator of whether I'll like a book is:
(view spoiler)
Thanks for creating this thread, StarMan!For #1: I go off the summary (back cover description) of the book primarily and also the content written in the reviews. Occasionally, I may pick up a book because it’s written by an author I like but even then, I still read the description first just in case. The ratings don’t matter as much to me, to be quite honest, as I’ve always been of the mindset that ratings are too subjective, with too many varied definitions, and therefore aren’t always a good indication of whether a book is good or whether it will appeal to me (same goes for TV series and movies). To me, the feedback on what people specifically liked or disliked about a book is more valuable to me than a rating.
For #2: Here is the ratings legend from my blog, which is the same way I rate the books on Goodreads and everywhere else. I’m actually not a rounder, which is why I wish GR had the ability to do half-star ratings. I always feel bad when I have to rate a book 3 stars here when it actually should be 3.5 stars (though I refuse to give 4 stars if I don’t feel it deserves it).
5 stars – Beyond amazing book that provokes an emotional reaction from me, provides profound insight of some sort that makes me self-reflect or think about things on a deeper level, etc. (Can also be a book that I feel is beautifully written and has great literary quality and/or significance to it, even if it doesn’t impact me on a personal level).
4 stars – Excellent book, well-written, thought-provoking, great story and/or characters, etc., but with some flaws.
3 stars – Not bad but not excellent either. (Books that I feel are good overall but just didn’t suit my fancy will generally be put into this category).
2 stars – Kind of bad. Read at your own risk.
1 star – Meh…don’t waste your time!
Note: If I DNF a book, there will be no rating on it, as I don’t feel it’s fair to assign a rating to something I didn’t finish.
For#3: Genre-wise, I refuse to read horror because 1) those types of books (series, movies, etc.) have never appealed to me and 2) well, I’m chicken and don’t want to read things that will give me nightmares, lol. Not a fan of science fiction either but I’m ok with reading sci-fi books as long as it’s not hardcore stuff – books about dystopian worlds, time travel, etc. are fine, though I would also look at the summary, as I don’t like to pick books purely based on genre or theme. Also, these types of books would probably have lower priority for me -- meaning they would probably be at the bottom of my TBR list and I would read everything else I want to read first, unless I have to read for book club or something like that.
In terms of subject matter, of course I will usually gravitate towards topics that interest me, though I try to keep an open mind and don’t mind trying new things as long as it’s not too off the wall. Oh and no bodice rippers for me either – any book that features “half-clad” or “scantily-clad” people on the cover is usually an auto-skip for me.
Good comments, Bkwmlee! Nice rating scale as well. I like that you are mostly open-minded about ratings and genres (except for horror, ha ha). Some of the best books I've read have been completely random picks from the Salvation Army.
If the cover art is interesting on a book, I'll definitely check it out! However, if any book goes on my TBR, it's because I think the description of it sounds interesting. And, if I'm unsure after reading the description, I'll look at some reviews to judge whether or not I think I would like it. I never just put a book on my TBR because of cover art or genre! I have a list of so many books to read that I don't want to waste my time with a book that I have no interest in. Currently, I have over 400 books on my TBR, and about 100 books at home that I haven't even read yet!As for genres, I'll pretty much read any historical fiction or Victorian/Gothic literature. They're my favorite genres, but I never say no to any, either! It doesn't matter what genre it is, as long as I think it sounds interesting :) Well, I guess that's not completely true. I hardly ever read Romance novels. If the book has romance in it, that's fine, as long as it's not overwhelming! But those books with the man and woman on the cover, where the man has his shirt open and hair flowing in the breeze, with the woman clinging to him...hard pass.
As for how I rate books, a 5 star rating means that it's one of my favorite books I've ever read! It was amazing, and I would definitely read it again. A 4 star rating is a book that I very much enjoyed, and would tell people about, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a favorite, and I would be fine if I never read it again.
I think I mostly give books a 3 star rating (my average at this moment is 3.51). If I rate a book 3 stars, it means that I did like it, but I wouldn't rave about it. Maybe I'd tell a few select people about it, if I knew that it was their kind of book. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I wouldn't be quick to reread it, or rereread it, etc.
A 2 star rating means that it wasn't the worst book I read, but I didn't really enjoy it, either. Maybe it was the story, or the writing. I tend to be picky with writing, but, then again, I want to be an author so..maybe it's a good thing? But with a 2 star rating, I probably skipped parts of it to get it over with. A 1 star rating means I hated it. Probably couldn't even finish it. I give all DNF books a 1 star rating, which may seem harsh, but to get a 1 star rating from me, it honestly has to be awful.
A book that comes to mind that I gave a 1 star rating is Victory at Yorktown, which I actually paid for. Thankfully it was only $5. I had to give it a 1 star rating though, because just within the prologue, there were 7 grammatical errors. I honestly couldn't even believe that it had been published. I don't even know if there was an editor. If there was, they should be fired. Honestly, they probably published it because it was written by Newt Gingrich, and, see? I'll give anything a chance. Because I hate Newt Gingrich.
If it happens that I have a 3.5 star rating in my head, which happens a lot, I'll rate it a 3, but write in my review that it's really a 3.5. To me, it just wasn't good enough to give it a 4. I've always wished that Goodreads would add half star ratings!
Let us know the BEST and WORST things you encounter in fiction books in these 2 polls:BEST: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
WORST: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
This isn't a bash of GR at all, just commentary on how YOU choose/rate books here.
If you want to bash, or have a suggestion, comment, or bug report for the GR Powers-That-Be, see: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...