We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions.
Book Ratings - What's your system?
I pretty much follow the Goodreads rating system since that is where I started rating and reviewing books in the first place.
★☆☆☆☆ - Did not like
★★☆☆☆ - It was Okay
★★★☆☆ - I liked it
★★★★☆ - I really liked it
★★★★★ - It was amazing
There’s definitely not enough stars between 3 and 5 mot days, but for me a 3 star rating does mean I liked it and therefore it IS a good rating.
I will give half ratings when a book really is better than a full star rating but isn’t quite at the next level but obviously Goodreads doesn’t accept half star ratings so I either have to round up or down for those.
I use flowers for my rating system because I’m obsessed with flowers. They just make me feel so happy and at peace, and I guess it’s kinda weird, but I just really love flowers.
My ratings range from 1 flower to 5 flowers. And I also use in between, half ratings, which kind of stand for “really”.
1 flower is: did not like it.
1.5: It had some redeemable qualities.
2 flowers: Okay.
2.5: Almost liked it.
3 flowers: Liked it.
3.5: Really liked it.
4 flowers: Loved it.
4.5: Really loved it.
5 flowers: Absolutely loved it.
What things make you lower your rating for a book?
Well this one is a tough one… For me it’s hugely subjective on a per-book basis.
The thing is that I like to rate books as soon as I finish them so I capture my FEELINGS while reading and not necessarily make it all about technicalities. I’ve rated a couple of books that had a few glaring issues relatively highly because I just enjoyed them so much! And it’s the feelings I get from books and their ability to transport and entertain me that I’m looking for.
A few things that will make me bring down my rating MIGHT be:
Poor writing (also including cheesy, eye roll worthy dialogue).
Flat, cookie cutter-like characters.
Poor editing - spelling mistakes, grammar issues and poor editing in general can really throw me out of my reading zone! If the book is keeping me entertained and enthralled though, this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker.
If I absolutely cannot connect to a book in any way AND it’s poorly written then I might DNF it and in that case it gets one star. One star is a really bad rating.
Hmm, hard question. Just the usual things, I guess. But characters are probably the biggest factor for me - if they’re badly written, flat, unoriginal, or if the female characters are discriminated against and the story’s clearly sexist, then that automatically lowers my rating. If the plot’s weak but the characters are awesome, then my rating will still be pretty high.
Whether I find the book boring or not is also a strong factor. Or put more professionally: whether the pace is too slow or not.
If a book is an ARC, then I won’t take spelling errors into account. But if it’s published, etc, and has spelling and grammatical errors, then that will definitely affect my rating. Errors in a properly published book are unprofessional and distract from the enjoyment of the story itself.
Have you ever looked back on ratings and reviews and wanted/needed to change them?
I don’t think that there’s a book blogger around that wouldn’t say yes to this one! However I generally try to only change ratings and/or reviews when I re-read books so that I know that this is coming from the right place.
There might be books that I have enjoyed more or less at a particular time in my life however reading tastes and ratings are so individual and (mine especially) are quite instinctive rather than based on a technical system. There’s no wrong rating, just like there’s no wrong opinion.
Yes yes YES! All the time! I’m so fussy and I’m literally never satisfied. Well no, not quite. It’s only a particular few books and movies’ reviews I wish I could “redo”.
For example, my reviews of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series were really problematic for me. I plan to re-read the books sometime soon, and then my ratings will definitely drop; I won’t give them 4 flowers if I reviewed them again, I’d drop them to about 3 or 3.5 And I would definitely rewrite my reviews: I’m not happy with my reveiws for those books, and I think some of them were just plain badly written.
But something to keep in mind when you’re panicking about old reviews (and something that gives me comfort): It’s not fair to be hard on yourself for a rating you’re ashamed to have given a book. If the review is badly written and if your opinion’s changed, fine! You can rewrite the review. But don’t slam your opinion. What you wrote (or rated) was what you thought the book deserved at the time. It was what you thought at the time, and that isn’t wrong. You didn’t just randomly throw a rating at a book and scribble some incoherent review (though some of mine might look like that...). You gave it serious thought, and you wrote and rated what the book meant to you. At the time. There’s no such thing as a wrong review. And you’re not lying in a review if your opinion has changed since then. By all means, if you’re unhappy with what you said and your opinion’s changed, then re-write and re-rate. But don’t be ashamed of what you thought of the book back then.
If you'd like to read my responses, hop on over to their collab posts!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our fifth discussion post! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses? If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below.
Stay tuned for next week’s questions!
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