Here's something I'm curious about:
I never rate books (unless it's the reviews I'm doing for www.teensreadtoo.com). But I've been reading so many book blogs lately: The Story Siren, GreenbeanTeenQueen, and TheUnderCoverBookLover and they all rate books.
Mostly I say what I like about the book and I'll say I liked it, loved it, or adored it....but that's about it. Should I be saying more in terms of rating?
Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
I never rate books (unless it's the reviews I'm doing for www.teensreadtoo.com). But I've been reading so many book blogs lately: The Story Siren, GreenbeanTeenQueen, and TheUnderCoverBookLover and they all rate books.
Mostly I say what I like about the book and I'll say I liked it, loved it, or adored it....but that's about it. Should I be saying more in terms of rating?
Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
8 comments:
I don't rate books because I personally don't find ratings useful. I'd rather see your opinions on the book: what you liked, which parts worked etc.
Sometimes I don't even look at the ratings because not everyone will like or dislike the same thing. You could think a book is great and another might think its "meh". Anyways - I would rather read your opinion because I wanna know what you like or didn't about the book.
On my review, sometimes I put stars (out of five) which is more for me then anything - just to show how much I like it. Its not a rating.
What your doing is fine - at least for me it is. So keep up the good work! :)
I give my opinion on the books and then give it a star rating of 1 to 5. But I don't think a rating is necessary - your opinion on the book is really the important info. :)
M
I write up a review to explain my rating, but I like ratings mostly because it gives a quick snapshot of what the person thought of the book. Also, when I post my reviews on goodreads or Amazon, I have to rate it. I use half stars on mine (even though I don't include them in my rating list) because I figure people can get that I liked a book more than the three stars but not enough to give it four. Or maybe that only makes sense in my head, but I read the review no matter what the rating.
I'm torn a little because I do like reading what other people rate books, but I have a hard time breaking down my reactions except to say that I liked/loved it and why. I plan on sticking with my current approach, but i was just curious to see what other reader think.
I don't think you have to rate every little detail like: writing, plot, characters, cover etc. To me, that's too much. A simple star rating (one out of five) works just as well, and I see a lot of bloggers use stars and rate overall instead of individual things.
But either way, I like the way you do your reviews now. So whether or not you change your system, I'll still read them.
A rating without a review doesn't mean much to me - but, I think ratings are nice because it gives me the occasion to glance at a reader's blog and have a quick idea of what they like and don't like.
I rate my books and categorize them with the ratings, so that someone new to my blog could see immediately which were my favorites and which I didn't like. But I always comment on why I liked them or not, because something I didn't like might be exactly what someone else is looking for!
So, no, ratings are not necessary, they're just a nice bonus!
I can do without ratings. A number or star or thumbs up means nothing without some explanation of what was good or bad (in the reader's opinion) about the book.
Your reviews are always fabulous. Keep up the good work!
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