[A Mini Discussion] Do I Rate Books Too Highly? Do I Just Love ALL Books? What Is The “Right” Way To Rate A Book? Ft. Incoherent & Confused Wailings.

So, it may have come to your attention that I love books. no wayyyy you have a book blog.

I got this post idea from Lily, and her post ‘I… hate books?’. I think that that WHOLE post opens up a lot about ratings and opinions that differ.

It’s not unheard of for people to not match exactly with their opinions. But I think that there’s a lot of conflicts when it comes to opinions in the community.

See here a post about the pros of negative reviews, and also here different opinions on the blogging community in general and who it’s “for” that both link in with this idea!

future me: god this post is taking me so long to write I have no idea what to say about this without just repeating myself all the time. Also, this is going to be a really short post considering that I still have no idea what to write.

It may have also come to your attention, if you are interested in my highly uninteresting reading updates, that I don’t give a lot of ratings that are under 4 stars. *flicks to Goodreads*

My average rating on Goodreads is 4.17, and frankly, I thought that it would be higher but nonetheless, it helps my point. And, all but THREE of my reads this year have been 4 stars or more.

I like that fact. I really do. But, I still notice that my ratings are higher than other people’s??? And I understand that people’s opinions are different but when allllll my ratings are the same and all high and all my reviews are just me screaming about books, it really makes me question whether or not I’m doing this properly.  

me @ this

Now, in the same way, if you were to give lower ratings, it makes me question whether I am not thinking about the book in the right way.

It makes me feel like I’m not critical enough, while someone else could worry that they are too critical.

or I just love most books.

I especially dwell on this when I maybe look back on books that I’ve previously read and I’ve thought, “did I actually like that?” because sometimes I do that and realise “yeah, that book wasn’t so great.”

BUT then I wonder if I’m making that mistake with all my books and just getting swept away with the hype?

But then I think some more.

And should we change ratings later on? Maybe no because you could forget all the good things that you liked about it. Maybe yes because your opinions on the events in the book can change.

Or, you realise (like me) that you kind of finished the book without any real opinion and that can change after like,,, months.

rating systems

These differ from person to person. which!! leaves ratings up to a lot of interpretation.

For someone, a 3/5 star rating could be that they thought it was fun in areas I would recommend, whereas, for someone else, a 3/5 star rating is basically yeah it wasn’t great, wouldn’t recommend. this book is awful. 

For me, it differs from book to book which isn’t helpful in the slightest?? or maybe it is?? I don’t know. 

If I have small quibbles, I’d give 4/4.5 but someone else could give a 4-5/5 star rating for a book that they love (and only love-love) and just be really picky about reads getting 5-star ratings, whereas I give them quite freely.

And we all interpret people’s rating system not in the exact same way as another!! 

IT’S ALL SUBJECTIVE. 

And there is no “right” way to review or rate a book!!

It’s our opinions, and there’s no wrong or right way to form an opinion/rate books/breathe/do anything. 

So maybe I’m not critical enough. Maybe I don’t rate my books the right way. Maybe I give out too many 5-star reads. Maybe I don’t.

Who knows???

Chat with me: How do you rate your books? Do you think you’re too critical? Do you think that you rate too highly? Do you think that there’s a ‘proper’ way?