What Do You Think? Ratings - Part 2

Just after reading that post, I visited A Bookish Affair and found even more reason to get my ratings systems nailed down and visible for all. The short version is, in addition to her blog being plagerized last week, she had an unfortunate confrontation from an author who was displeased with the review her book got. Meg was asked about her rating system (right at the top of the page!) by the publicity company. You can read the details on Meg’s blog, but the bottom line for me is....I need to have my ratings system well thought out and visible to all.

So I did some thinking and here is how it went...

I started out with the Goodreads system. I’ve always loosely based my ratings on Goodreads stars, but embellished is some with half-stars because I need those ‘in between’ steps. I thought about using 10 stars, but 10 stars seems a little overwhelming and I think most bloggers are used to 5 being a top ranking!

I also thought about using something other than stars. I’ve seen a lot of custom ranking bars around; fish, hearts, sea shells, magnifying glasses, etc. But since my blog is pretty general, nothing stood right out for a ‘theme’. I’ve always liked Roger Eberts ‘2 thumbs up’ for movies, but since I have trouble with only 5 stars, using only 2 thumbs would be way too confining! I guess I could use fingers, with 5 fingers as a top rating, but what about the bottom. When I give a book 1 finger, is everyone wondering which finger I am giving it?! So stars it is!

For reference, here is the Goodreads system...

★                  - did not like it

★★               - it was ok

★★★            - liked it

★★★★        - really liked it

★★★★★    - it was amazing

And here is MY system....

★                  - dislike; I shouldn’t have wasted my time

★★               - ok, but just barely; flawed but not a total waste of time

★★★            - liked it, but pretty average; not a big with a major impact on me

★★★★        - liked it a lot; will definitely recommend to others

★★★★★    - loved it; among the best I’ve ever read

I also give half stars to bump a book up if I think it is better than the star level indicated but not good enough to be bumped to the next star level.

Occasionally, after time as passed, I may revisit a book. It may have aged well and I realize it is more memorable or has more meaning for me than I originally thought. Or it may be, that in comparison to other books I’ve read, it doesn’t stand up as well as I thought it would. In those cases, I may adjust my ratings up or down by a half star or more.

So...that’s it! What do you think?
You can find review my ratings system at anytime by clicking the link at the top of this page.

What Do You Think? Rating Books

I recently came upon a discussion by Megan @ Love, Literature, Art & Reason that got me thinking about my star rating system. Basically, Megan uses a star rating system based on the Goodreads rating system and wondered if other readers interpret her ratings the way she means them to be interpreted. I think that is a really good question and one we all need to think about when we rate a book.

Here is my reply to her question....

• Great discussion. I also use Goodreads as a guidline, but also use half stars. To me, a 1 is a dislike and I shouldn't have wasted my time with it. A 5 means is is among the best books I've ever read and I will be thinking about it for a long time.
• In between is a 2, which means is was just barely ok, but probably had a lot of flaws that kept me from really liking it. But also not a total waste.
• A 3 to me is a pretty 'average' book. I liked it fine and don't regret reading it, but it is not a book that impacts me or I will be thinking about, and possible not even remember, a month from now.
• A 4 means I really liked it, I'm glad I read it and will recommend it to others, but it falls short of being one of my best books ever.
• I also do half stars, usually for books that fall just short of the next star. For example, I often give 3-1/2 stars to books that I think are a bit above average; I enjoyed them but would not recommend bumping other books of your pile to get to this one. Does that make sense?           

I have noticed that I often change my rating as time passes. For example, I may initially give a book a 3, but after discussing it at bookclub, or writing the actual review, I realize that there was more substance to it, more to think about,  than I initially gave it credit for.  And after time passes and I think back to it, it is a more memorable book than I realized. I may raise it a half star or more.

One thing this discussion has made me realize is that I need to think about my ratings system and really spell it out, both for you, the reader of my blog, and for me. I need to be a bit more consistent when I rate a book so that when I give a rating it always means the same thing. And I need to make that easy to refer to, as in, I need to have it visible on this blog.

So look for it. I want to spend a little time thinking about it and defining my terms, but I hope soon to revisit this, and to have a well defined rating system in place soon!

What do you think? What is your system for rating books?