Ratings. I've talked before about how I have such a hard time with them. The thing is, I can't seem to figure out why. Before I blogged, or read AS much as I do now, I don't feel like this was an issue. I would go on Amazon or B&N (I didn't know about Goodreads then) and rate books and I found it easy. It was either "OMG I LOVE IT"- 5 stars or it was "Meh, didn't like it very much at all"-2 stars. 1 star was for hate with a fiery passion of 10 burning suns and 4 stars equaled really really like, but the ending didn't go the way I wanted it to. Now I feel like there are SO many more factors thrown and it hurts my head and then I just end up giving 3 stars all the time.
Okay, so not ALL the time, but I've been realizing I tend to throw out those 3 stars for virtually no reasons. I look at all the 3 star books I've rated on Goodreads and I definitely don't have similar feelings for them. If they're all in the same 3 star category, shouldn't they be there for similar reasons??? Anymore I feel like I've been doing this whole thing:
Me: Okay, I finished this book..... I definitely didn't love it.
Me: I kind of hated it.
Other Me: But it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. And there was that really cool character.
Me: BUT the writing!!!!!
Other Me: But I never wanted to stop reading it, so that counts for something, right?
Other Me: Oh, and I totally laughed during that funny part. HAHAHA, okay that part was f-ing funny.
Me: Oh Lord, I don't know!!!
Me: Okay---- 3 Stars
Shouldn't I have set parameters? Like this:
5 Stars- OMG LOVE
4 Stars- SO love, but one thing held me back
3 Stars- ???? This should be something!!!
2 Stars- Don't like, but it could be worse.
1 Star- Worse.
See where that 3 star holds me up??
After 4 years of reviewing I should know what a 3 star book is. So why don't I? I'm probably just over thinking it, but DAMN IF I'M NOT DRIVING MYSELF CRAZY.
I know books can be given a rating for a multitude of reasons, but I want to FEEL the same towards all my 2 stars, all my 4 stars, and so on. I don't FEEL the same way about my 3 star books. It's hard to explain what this feeling is, but it's just there.
I think the main thing is, I don't like giving ratings. I'm bad at it. I'm always wanting to give half stars and changing my mind a month or so later and adjusting. I need them though because I know I always feel like I can't truly know how much a person liked (or didn't like) a book without seeing their rating.
Do you have any rating advice?? What does 3 star mean to you? Do you ever doubt your ratings later on?
I often doubt my stars later on. On my blog I do it differently with 10 star ratings so I can have more flexibility with that. Like I rate things 5 stars on Goodreads that weren't perfect but I loved them. My five stars tend to be similar to yours. For me 3 stars is a "it was okay" book. I liked it but didn't love it.
ReplyDeleteBut I have the most trouble with 3 stars and 2 stars. I almost never give two stars. Those books I DNF. And I can justify things I like after finishing a book but then I look back and think that I didn't enjoy it that much so why am I giving it 3, 4, or even 5 stars. I sometimes think I'm too generous with the stars. But it's all subjective to begin with.
Seriously, rating books is hard!
Cassi @ My Thoughts Literally
It's SO hard!! I've been having a hard time identifying what is "just okay" for me. What does that mean????? I feel like I used to know and now I sort of don't :(
DeleteYes to this! For me I have the same problem with my four stars lol.. I have that internal convo with myself too and then I end up being pretty generous. It's like, I like the book just fine and there's nothing 'wrong' with it but I just didn't love it...so four stars? That's me LOL!
ReplyDeleteI love looking at other people's star ratings! I may skim a review but I always look for the stars ;)
Right?? It's like I NEED to see the stars.... but I can't figure out my own!!!
DeleteI feel the same way! Sometimes I'm like I really liked this but it wasn't great, 3 stars! And other times I'm like ugh I did not enjoy this but I can see that these elements were done well, 3 stars! I guess it depends on whether your reviewing based on enjoyment or based on critical reviewing and I know I flip flop between the two.
ReplyDeleteI think I need a 3 stars-good and a 3 stars-bad rating because they both FEEL so different! Reviewing is hard sometimes :(
DeleteI tend to give 3 star ratings to my reviews if I don't have a strong dislike to the book I've read and if I really, really didn't love it or really, really like it.
ReplyDeleteA 3 star review is a book that I enjoyed reading in the moment/at the time, but will most likely be forgettable down the road. It's like giving a book a "C" for a grade as it was just average.
Btw, I like your blog a lot and have nominate you for The Gemstone Book Tag. Check out my blog post for more details! Thanks! http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-birthstone-book-tag.html
That is definitely a good way of putting it-- a book that won't be memorable down the road. Thanks!
DeleteI have this problem too! I am always comparing my similarly rated books and seeing no correlation but for me it's with my five star books. I give a book five stars if I really enjoyed it but then I look at the books that I loved and then the ones that I ADORED WITH ALL MY HEART and they're both five stars... Awesome post :)
ReplyDeleteOh no, now I'm starting to question my 5 stars bc I do the same thing!! Should a regular book I really liked be with a book that is one of my all-time favorites????? Okay, no I need to step away from this idea before I get more mixed up :)
DeleteYeah 3 stars is funny. I usually give when I don't particularly like the book but don't particularly hate it. Or when I feel like "meeh" but did not hate it. Average or something. Makes sense? I feel your trouble tho :) ;) x
ReplyDeletelol this is SO me and the main reason I don't do stars. I guess a 3-star read for me is a book that's perfectly okay. Or it could also be a book I just felt "meh" about. Or it could be a promising book with some major flaws. All this makes me crazy. I mean ... what is 3.5???
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by! Jen @ YA Romantics
I kind of wish I didn't do stars either at this point. I'm SO big on the .5 stars and it's honestly to the point where I wonder if I even know how to give stars without adding a .5 to it.
DeleteI've recently fallen into a pit of 3 star reviews, as well! I always try to give a little more description in things like Goodreads reviews, but to be honest, a lot is just determined in how I feel when the book is finished, which is a pretty subjective thing!
ReplyDeleteI get what you mean. I think it's hard to feel the SAME EXACT way about the books you rate the same. One book can be 3 stars for so and so reasons, and another can be 3 stars for slightly other reasons. I don't normally do star ratings. I sometimes do on Goodreads and Amazon makes you if I cross-post over there, but normally, I just try and share my thoughts in the actual review. It's difficult, I know!
ReplyDelete-lauren
Haha! I've had very similar issues with this too and it's actually why I started using half star ratings on my blog. I felt like five stars just wasn't enough to work with because, yeah, the 3 star rating was confusing! On my blog 3 stars means "it was okay." I hope you come to a happy solution soon! :D
ReplyDeleteTracy @ Cornerfolds
I hope I come to a solution too!! It's just recently that I've been overthinking it :)
DeleteI get it i do. It seems no one can decided if 3 stars is a good thing or not. I think we have all struggled with this . I know I have. I try to keep my three stars as it could have been better, it had some issues but if a sequel cam out or coming out... would I read it. yes. Would I rush to read it. probably not. But I would for sure read it at some point. Of course. then its a 3 star. lol. I know strange thinking. So I liked it but didn't love it. WOuld recommend it but wouldn't hold it as a favorite. Kept my attention but I wasn't thinking about it all the time and couldn't wait to open it up again. no real flaws but feel it could have been better. I am not sure that helps but that is my way of thinking.
ReplyDeleteBut that is kind of what a 3 star rating is. It’s middle of the road, nothing fantastic but also nothing too horrible. If you are thinking of a book and have an equal amount of things you liked and disliked, then that should be a 3 star rating. If there was more you liked than disliked, then bump it up to a 4 star. The reverse for a 2 star. If it helps, try writing down a list of what you liked and disliked about the book and count them up. If there are 2 or more items in one category compared to the other category, drop or raise the rating as fit. If they are equal within a range of 1, then slap a 3 star rating on that sucker. I don’t think there is a problem with giving out 3 star ratings if nothing wows or repulses you about a book.
ReplyDeleteI definitely doubt my ratings because sometimes my feeling about a book change over the years. I don't have the same issue with 3 star reviews. It is the 4 star ones that I tend to give out indiscriminately. I do wish Goodreads allowed for half stars to help us differentiate!
ReplyDeleteFor me, 3 stars is average, and strangely, I think that's the rating I use the least. I also find it really hard to write 3-star reviews for some reason. Like there was nothing that was amazing, but nothing that was really bad, either. It was just OK in a way. I have a lot of 4-star reviews, and quite a bit of 5-star reviews as well.
ReplyDeleteI think this is because I'm getting better at choosing books I am likely to love.
I'm pretty weird sometimes when I choose new books to read, though, because I have trouble actually trusting things if a book only have high (or only low) rating.
It's really interesting to see everyone's opinion on this, thanks for the great post!
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
Ratings are a funny thing. I expect different things from different books and I think I rate them based on what I expect from them. For me though, 3 stars is that I liked it, didn't love it. It is still a book that I might recommend to someone if it is a topic they are interested in. I rated one 3 stars one time because I really enjoyed the story idea, but didn't enjoy the format of the entire story being written in journal entries, emails, press releases. It kept me from forming a connection with the characters as much as I liked. I give a lot of 4 star reviews as well as a lot of 3.5 and 4.5 reviews as well. I don't give a ton of 5 star reviews. Those I reserve for the books that I recommend you drop what you're doing and read this book now. I think everyone has their own rating system, it is why I rarely judge a book by their rating, but by the review. I love seeing people's comments. Great post.
ReplyDeleteMelanie @ Hot Listens & Rabid Reads
Three stars, for me, if that I finished it, I'm not going to write a scathing review. Mostly, it is the Meh Zone.
ReplyDeleteI have no advice because I think I completely get what you're saying. I have no parameters for my ratings. I rate books based on how they *feel*. Like, this book just *feels* like a 4. And that book just *feels* like 2. So sometimes I look at different books that have the same rating, and one of them was just ok, whereas another was great but had this one flaw, another I really didn't like but gave that rating for some reason? And I agree that it happens often with 3s. It's like my brain can't decide whether I want 3 to be a good thing or a bad thing lol.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I don't even have a guideline on my blog to explain what different star ratings mean to me because they never seem to mean the same thing. I tried, but each point on the rating ended up having a paragraph long explanation as I tried to list all the various different reasons I might give a book that rating lol. It was a mess, so I gave up. Then again, this is why I stick to reading reviews rather than looking at ratings. So I just trust others to do the same with my reviews.
I just finished a post about ratings that runs later in the week so I've been thinking about this too. Ratings are so subjective that I think what's important is to explain your opinion. I think for most of us the review is more important than the rating. Your 3 stars might mean the same thing as 4 stars from someone else and that's ok. Your readers learn your system.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm in that 3-3.5 star zone and I don't know how to rate the book, I usually write the review first. Or at least make a pros and cons list. If there are more than 2 small things or more than one big thing I don't like, that's probably a 3. But a 3 still suggests that you might recommend it.
Gretl @ Goldilox and the Three Weres
I really, really love this post! I completely agree, there tends to be much less uniformity among all of the books that I have rated in the three star category! It's really the sort of catch-all rating where a book lands if it doesn't evoke s strong reaction from me, whether negative or positive.
ReplyDelete-Cristina @ Girl in the Pages
This is a struggle indeed! I know 3 stars is kind of my fallback - if it's a meh book, I didn't really feel anything, and I kind of had to push myself to read it, then it's a 3 stars.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post - I never really realised that 3 stars was my fallback until now :D
Geraldine |Corralling Books