3 stars for a book she despised?? Alyssa, girl, get your shit together! 😂 For real though, star ratings mean very little because we all rate things differently. I can love a book but recognise that it has problems, so it doesn't get 5 stars. Giving 1 or 2 stars isn't mean, its just being honest. As long as you're not one of those people who review bomb or personally attack an author, its not personal.
America wanted exceptionalism so hard that it made 5 the standard, so now people treat 5 as the standard. 5/5 means anything from perfection to mediocre. You give an user driver a 5 for not killing you. Which is good. But 3 would have been the same on the old system.
but i think this is because companies (Amazon) started adding user star ratings in things that are completely inappropriate. i mean the uber driver got you from A to B alive and therefore fulfilled all expectations so ofc that's 5/5 why would i deduct any points, that's mean! i orderd a stapler from Amazon and it turned up so 5/5 everything worked as it was supposed to! 5 stars works for art because it is trying to create a emotional connnection, or say something, or you ar admiring the craft . it's an experience, we can rate those on a spectrum.
The additional problems happen when corporations or other powers that be - push for only perfection. My yearly employee survey has a rating system of 1-10 where 1-9 means the same thing as 1 (negative) and 10 is the only positive. For the emotional “positive, neutral, negative” portions neutral also means negative. We’re being trained to min-max life
i think it also happened with grades too. pop quizzes and stuff in school or minor little assignments instead of being rated from 0-100 would rated out of the number of questions. so you could get a 5/5 on a quiz and instead of a 100 it'd be written 5/5 and was mostly a completion grade for answering every question. i kind of "dumbed down" the grading scale a lot and instead of answering questions critically it was just about completely the question at all.
@@StanleyDevastating5* on anything for minimum or standard expectations lowers any room for improvement and provides a slide into mediocrity. There's no room to acknowledge anyone or any policy that is exceptional: the driver that helped with luggage, the driver interacted in a way that fit your frame of mind, the delivery guy said hello as you popped out to get your package, the company responded to your issue promptly and positively.
I think it's funny how so many people get defensive when other people rate their favorite books, because some of my favorite books aren't even 5 stars for me 😅 like I can have loads of fun when reading a book while being able to criticize it where I think it lacks 😅
yes i really enjoyed fairytale by stephen king, think about it constantly, ending was very anticlimatic tho and the main character had the "i am just a boy, i did bad things when i was 10 why does everyone think i can save em" mentality, gave it 4 stars but the beginning and middle, i was so hooked and loving it it overshadows the end and the 4 stars are not explaining all that
Same I have a couple of favourites that I would definitely not give 5 stars (probably 3, maybe 4) that I actually like more because they're imperfect. I think sometimes an idea is so interesting and original that even though it's not flawlessly executed, the way it has stuck with me as totally singular makes me need to absorb it into my identity and yap about it forever.
4:42 There is no bigger hater of the Twilight franchise than people who love the Twilight franchise My best friend loves Twilight and will make fun of it constantly. There are twilight meme fb groups that just roast it. There’s freedom in admitting something you love is “bad” and loving it anyway. It just makes people’s dislike of it roll off you and you continue enjoying the thing. People should try this approach more
Big Hero 6 is so ass, genuinely such a terrible movie, it was too fast paced, too many ideas were crammed into it and left underbaked only to be dropped, they introduce the audience to bot fighting at the very start so you would assume it’s important right? Nope, dropped after 10 minutes and not brought up again, was the grief and mental healthy decline of Hiro given the proper time and depth to make it mean anything? Nope. A huge disappointment…that being said, I will be rewatching it today and make lots of headcannons for it. I still don’t like the movie but it is very fun to rewrite…
This is a super interesting video and something I think about a lot!! I rate a lot of books 3 stars which means - I enjoyed my time reading them but I wont be obsessed with the stories or characters. 4 stars is a VERY enjoyable read, and 5 stars is *this book is literally part of my soul now*. I find it super interesting how other people rate as well : D thank you for the video!!
Same! 3*: had a nice time 4*: really good book, the world building, characters and plot are well thought through 5*: one of my favorite books, there's something i can deeply relate too or the story, characters and world building felt really unique
my rating are similar lol. 1 star = absolute garbage 2 stars = had one or two things i liked but still not great 3 stars = it’s alright 4 stars = REALLY good but missing something to make it a five star 5 stars = i loved everything and i’ll only be talking about this for the next three months
I don’t usually share my ratings of books on a public platform atm. That’s basically what I do. 3 stars means I’m mostly neutral but it kept my interest enough to keep reading. Anything under that then I likely hated it or dnf. 5 stars to me means it was a book that feels like it was made for me and it very possibly could consume my personality.
I stopped paying attention to ratings overall, but I do tend to read the low star reviews and see what was bothering other readers enough to comment on. If these issues are things I have a problem with, I’ll move on, if not, I’ll probably give it a go. A 5 stars with hearts and emojis is useless to me.
I do the same. I will not read a 4 or 5 rating reviews cause most time the issues will not be pointed out. I will read a 1 or 2 star maybe 3. I usually go and read them after I’m reading a book and realizes I’m not really liking the book. This is to see if others were not liking the book for the same reasons. And I usually try and give a book a chance by reading 100 pages for I decides on how the book is going. Some people will read 30 pages and be like DNF. I just think that is too soon.
I do that as well. It does annoy me though when the 1 star reviews are extremely nitpicky. I’m currently reading a book where MLI has an alpaca named ‘Harry Styles’ and someone in the reviews said that no white cis man would do that, which 1. is pretty rude to the white cis men out there that would do that, and 2. the book literally says that his grandma let girl scouts name the alpaca. Not to mention the countless people saying it was ‘predictable’ even though it’s advertised as a hallmark movie in a book. I genuinely think some people can’t accept that a book just isn’t for them and have to find something to nitpick to find something to call the book ‘bad’ for. I couldn’t get into a lot of books, but that’s just because they weren’t for me. There was nothing wrong with them, they’re fine books, it just wasn’t my vibe. and I think a lot of people have trouble accepting that.
This was so wild to listen to, I had no idea people felt all this pressure around not reviewing highly. The autism got me out there handing out 1 stars like candy and never second guessing it once.
Fellow autist here. My most common rating so far this year is 2 stars. That to me means "competently written, but I didn't like it" (1 star generally being the incompetently written ones or books I hate with an undying passion). It never occurred to me to try to cram social politics into my personal ratings. True, I can't comprehend social politics in the first place, but it sounds exhausting for all those folks out there second guessing their own opinions like that.
me rating books big fat 0s in storygraph with no remorse haha i even go back and rate things lower once i think about them after reading other books. my average rating is still about 3.5ish but i have no problem rating books low. if they suck for me they suck.
When it comes to reviewing any medium of art, I have become completely against giving scores. One thing I've learned from a particular movie review website and a particular music review youtuber is that people will hyperfixate on the scores and not even care to look into the reviewer's detailed feelings on the art they are reviewing.
I agree. I have five categories (characters, prose, etc) and assign a keyword or two to each, and note anything that stuck out to me or that I particularly liked or disliked. Not exactly a 'rating' system, just to record my overall thoughts and impressions at the time.
@@drew037 Sure! Characters, plot, writing, world-building and impact (did it hit me emotionally/make me think). A lot of people use similar categories, I think, but the keyword idea was borrowed from 2toRamble's video Rambler Rating System Explained. (highly recommend) They keep the stars too, but I don't need more than the keywords. Oh, and I do the 5 categories for more modern books only. I'm more flexible for books older than say the 1950s. A lot of modern books have a different style, formula and purpose. TLDR; Another reason I don't care for stars is a book I love and a book I hate could end up with the same number of stars. Extreme example here, I love The Blade Itself to death, but would dock it for weak impact, plot and world-building (objectively, because I don't really care about world-building) = 3 stars (secretly 5). However, I loathed every second of Beloved (except my favourite lol line in all of fiction 'The stench stank.'🤣🤣🤣), and would dock it for the cringe-inducing pretentious prose and the heavy-handedness = 3 stars for cultural significance and impact (0 for enjoyment). So yeah, stars. I just can't.
“Do you even like books?” “Why do you even read” my average rating is 3.08. Critical thinking is what gets my mind moving and makes me use my brain when reading even though it’s an unconscious behaviour. I don’t mean to be over-critical but I’ve been reading for over a decade and have read more than a thousand books.. I know what I like and dislike but there are so many factors that might lower or raise a rating.
that's a good average to have, it shows discernment between excellent, fine and not good which means you are actually communicating something by doing this.
My average is somewhere around that too. Which is actually surprisingly high considering I’m a very critical person. LOL. 3 stars is basically my default rating for things that were enjoyable but didn’t blow me away. I’m certainly not afraid to go lower if I didn’t enjoy it, though.
i think this may be part of my problem.. I've never DNF'ed a book (idk what goes on in my brain where im like ok i started this so i have to finish it or ill feel icky inside LOL)
part of the issue with the rating system and the push for '5 stars only' is the self publishing sector. platforms like amazon completely tank any book that gets less than 5 stars, which bleeds out into the wider community. so while goodreads reviews mean absolutely nothing, a lot of people get up in arms at the idea of rating a book anything less than 5 stars because of the impact a less than 5 star review can have on other platforms or because it's 'mean' somehow because the author might see it. but like, if every book is 5 stars, none of them are? ya know? but at the end of the day, ratings are always going to be subjective because of personal taste. personally, i follow people who are honest in their ratings and have tastes similar to my own OR completely opposite of mine - some of the best recs come because person x gave it 1 star, just saying ps: tell your friend 2 stars for a book they disliked so much they didn't even finish it is INSANE lmao
ugh i didn't know that about that (re: amazon) it seems like publishing has a lot of things wrong with it :/ that really sucks hahahah i know 2 stars for a DNF is wild to me
@@skylarearnhart Late to the game here. Loved your video. It's not necessarily publishing that has the issue, it's Amazon. All of this comes back to Amazon and their huge purchasing power. Goodreads is owned by them. Amazon's algorithm punishes people who don't get 5 star ratings and forces publishers and authors into less than desirable pricing agreements. I refuse to buy any sort of book from Amazon and no longer use the cesspool that is Goodreads. There are loads of articles out there describing how Amazon is bad for the book business on many levels. I get it. They are "convenient" and they are "cheap" but at what cost, really?
I'm studying to become a librarian and the greatest thing I've learned is the importance of appeal factors in fiction and how it translates to Reader's Advisory, i.e. recommending books. There are six appeal factors (pacing, characterization, story line, frame/setting, tone, and language/style.) Every book utilizes these factors differently and every reader enjoys certain factors differently. A book may focus heavily on the characterization and language/style. Reader A who loves to really get to know the characters and loves beautiful prose might absolutely love this while Reader B, who likes fast-paced stories with a gripping plot and conversational tone, plods through reading the book and eventually DNF's it. Relying solely on a 5 star rating from either reader isn't really going to help Reader C decide if this is going to be a book she will enjoy. There really does need to be a better system.
That's why I also use Storygraph to rate the books. I keep Goodreads for my friends, but in the comment section, I put the half ratings (example: I put 3 stars but in the comments I put 3.5)
Okay but that's another thing: with 3.5 you'd usually round up to a 4, not a 3, so you giving it 3 stars might be indicative of you seeing it closer to 3 than 4 stars? Or maybe I'm just rambling..
@@alicelidell4114 I also half rate and rate down lower on the actual stars. It doesn’t make sense for me to vote a 3.5 as 4 cause it hasn’t hit 4 for me. But now that I’m seeing people say it affects how books perform on selling platforms I’m probably gonna switch it to rating up on the stars and specifying the .5 in the text. They should just give as half star scales though cause a 5 point scale is so useless.
@alicelidell4114 I'm a storygraph user but have started using goodreads recently, I decided to round all my half stars up (so 3.5 to 4 etc) storygraph has .25 options too so if I felt the rating was worth less theyd have a 3.25 on StoryGraph and a 3 on Goodreads
I definitely agree with your point about people turning their loved books into their personality and criticism of that is criticism of them. I definitely think the internet as it is and the echo chambers it produces has definitely exacerbated this (booktok, fandoms, the fact that it's harder to signify a concrete personality in the digital medium like you would offline - and oh boy, is everything online). Not to mention that with chick lit, romance books and other books really popular women and girls often garner criticism that's rooted in misogyny and I think a lot of readers and fans feel the need to defend that, to insist that it IS good, actually it's a masterpiece! Look at how it made them feel! But I don't think the five star rating is destroying literature as we know it. It is doing some really annoying things to online reader spaces and experiences though. The 'if you don't rate it five stars you're an asshole' is a BONKERS entitled take though
The 'if you don't rate it five stars you're an asshole' comes from the usa-centric view that anything less than a 5-star rating means its shitpiss quality and shouldnt have ever been made and was a waste of time and money and effort. it is a huge problem, but so long as everything here is heavily corporatised, its not gonna go away.
I deleted my goodreads because I found that as I was reading a book I was more focused on what the rating might be, instead of enjoying the actual story. It’s been several months now and I’m loving reading again, without the self-imposed pressure of rating everything I consume.
This is why I don’t believe it when someone says a book is five stars. When I give a book five stars, that means it is perfection in my eyes. It means I’m getting the special edition copies. It means I’m nonstop bothering my family to read it. But for other people, they give books five stars if they just made them feel the slightest emotion which is the bare minimum for a decent book imo, not a 5 star thing. Like she’s said in the video, if you can accept that it’s not good but you still enjoyed it, that’s an important distinction when rating a book. I currently have a book on my shelf that is a solid 3 stars. But I loved it. I recognize all of its flaws and I still loved it. But not in any universe am I going to give that book 5 stars.
For me, when you only have a scale of 1-5 in integers a la Goodreads, it doesn't make sense to have 5 be perfect because then you're reserving 20% of the scale for 1% (or lower, depending on if you believe perfection is even possible) of books. On a 1-100 scale or even 1-10 with half points scale it makes more sense to save that last point for the perfect or near perfect. But on Goodreads, a 5/5 is just an amazing book, because there's a LOT more of those than perfect books.
3 stars is my default rating. If it’s important/meaningful, worth a read/somewhat enjoyable, or i could see it being beloved by someone else with slightly different tastes but didn’t really hit for me, it gets a 3 (give it a shot, worth a read). When I rate my faves for the year, it would be 4s and 5s. If I had a lot of fun reading it and had outward emotions (laughter, crying) it bumps up to a 4 (highly recommend). If it completely ripped me away from reality, would not change a thing (even if my fave character died😢) and made me think “oh yes this is why I read” it gets a 5 (must read). If it’s problematic in some ways that the author needs to engage with and get better at or really boring or unoriginal, that’s when it drops to a 2 (don’t like, don’t recommend, reconsider your day job, author). I only save 1 stars for books I would burn. If I give a book 1 star I would personally fist fight the author if I saw them in public. I think some people (typically older people) get confused and think 1 star means first place lol.
Let me also add I would NEVER tag an author or link them in any way to a bad review. Sometimes I will talk to them in my review like they were my bestie (“seek therapy Josh malerman” is a personal fave quote) but clearly I don’t expect them to read it
Girl I just found your channel today and have been going through a lil binge watch while I'm drawing. I didn't check your sub count bc I rarely look at that until I click the button myself, but THE FACT YOU ONLY HAVE 113 SUBS RN IN CRIMINAL???? I thought I had stumbled upon a 100k sub channel, your content has such good quality!!!
Okay thank you! Preach! I’ve noticed this rigid rating system in pretty much everything nowadays. I’m more active on Letterboxd (it’s like the movie version of goodreads), and this idea that a 3-star rating is mean is so prevalent there as well. You’ll see people giving 5-stars for everything, even very mediocre films. I think the term “masterpiece” is so overused these days too. Like if someone simply just enjoys something, now it’s a masterpiece. Whereas I feel like that term should be used in very specific instances in art. If someone is calling every single book or film made by someone a masterpiece, then the term just loses all meaning. There is no artist under the sun that can crank out a masterpiece every single time they make something.
I think hyperbole, in general, has made it hard to convey true greatness now. We’ve taking over the terms used for excellence and given them to mediocre things. But have not replaced the language or standards for the best of the best. We literally changed the meaning of literally because we neeeeeddd more to convey how we feel. It’s so extreme that we use actual death to express our love for something. Reading old letters feels so flat because emotions were not over inflated.
I think art is extremely subjective, and focusing too much on star ratings alone is just silly.. because they tell you NOTHING. its the same reason I stopped arguing with people about whether a certain band was good. There is really no way to concretely say they are or aren't when looking at it so black and white. If they say... "That singer sucks because her voice is too raspy.." I would be like, "Oh I will probably love it then!". I don't mind star ratings, but I often read reviews to gain an actual understanding of someone's reading experience. It's why I try to do written reviews on goodreads as much as possible. In fact, one of my favorite things to do is read the reviews after I finish a book. I think part of the reason reading is so fun is discussing the books afterward. The star rating thing is just an addition... but the more you read, the more you realize that they don't actually mean much. I don't really even pay attention to them unless the rating is REALLY low... which is rare. If that's the case, I will read reviews to find out why.
Admittedly I very rarely rate things lower than 4 stars nowadays (although I do still give 3 stars occasionally) BUT that's because my personal approach to reading is that I'm not going to continue reading a book I'm not enjoying and that I'm not actively excited to pick up and read and my personal approach to rating is that I won't rate a book I DNFed (a negative review with my reasons for dropping though... That's different and I do give out plenty of those).
My reading life changed for the better when I gave myself permission to DNF a book. Terrible writing? Stilted characters? Just not feeling it? DNF and move on; life is short! I also do not rate the books if I DNF them, but I do make notes in StoryGraph so in the future I can remind myself why I gave up on a particular book. But I also give tons of 3 star ratings to books I enjoyed. To be a 4 star, it needs to have really drawn me in, and to be a 5 star it has to have consumed me and ruined and/or fixed my life in the best possible way. I just looked out of curiosity, and to date, I have 5-starred only 6% of the books I’ve reviewed. 🤷♀️
@@mymindness I used to be someone who could never DNF a book no matter how much I hated it and it was awful. I'm perhaps even more liberal of a dropper now as a result but it has vastly improved my overall experience as now I only really reading books that I really love. For me a 3 is the lowest I'm willing to read and it's very borderline so a lot of books I might have rated a 3 tend to be dropped. Most of the books I finish land in the 3.5 to 4.5 range and I've only rated one book 5 stars this year because I'd say my requirements for being 5 stars are similar to yours.
Yes! I wish people would not rate a DNF. I've seen things like 'One Star: DNFed 30 pages in'. Didn't even read the book! I really like when people do as you do--leave a review sans stars explaining why they DNFed. That can actually be very helpful in deciding if I want to read/continue a book.
I view one-star as the star the author earned by writing a book, getting it published, and piqueing my interest enough to pick it up and start reading. No stars = none of that happened.
my biggest struggle with rating books is not knowing what perspective to go from, personal enjoyment or quality of the book itself. for instance, i didn’t love the virgin suicides that much because i was in a bit of a reading slump during that time, but at the same time i can fully acknowledge that it was a well written book and deserves to be rated highly.
I personally stopped giving books a star rating. I would fixate too much on what rating to give both while and after reading the book instead of just enjoying the experience.
I agree with pretty much everything you said but also KNOCKED LOOSE!! For real though I never pay attention to ratings or reviews. If i wanna start a new book or show I'll just do it and see how I like it. I see so many posts on reddit (mostly about anime and manga) where people ask "is xyz show worth it? Will i like it?" No one can know except you!!! It drives me crazy lol
Even if I love a book, I like seeing different opinions on it. It's fun sometimes! Or if I don't like a book, it's interesting to consider why someone did. It makes me think, as it brings in other perpectives to the mix. But personally, I remain confident about my experience of reading soemthing. Everyone has different tastes, and what you enjoy is going to be unique to you!
Honestly this point goes beyond just books. In gaming, the rating system is percentage based. So 1% to 100%. However that system has also been screwed up because ANY system that inflicts numerical value to something is flawed. Because we always want that perfect 5☆ or 100% positive experience. For me, a 60% positive is a game that is mediocre but has redeemable qualities. To someone else, that's a game they will never touch because 60% is BASICALLY 0% to them. It's so silly.
Ahhhhh I've seen myself do this sometimes. When a book is rated below 3.5 average on Goodreads my brain is like "yeaaah maybe that's not really good y'know, go buy something else". And I know I shouldn't so I read the book any way, but, yeah :(
oooo this was a super interesting vid. ppl's rating scales being different is smth that i think doesn't get brought up enough in discussions about reader reviews. i know the way i star books is pretty specific, esp my 5 stars (only given to books i see myself rereading multiple times in my lifetime). something 5 star for me could be someone else's 3 star! and i think you hit the nail on the head wrt people seeing their favs getting low stars and taking it very personally. especially younger people, they tend to view people's opinions on the things they love as opinions on themselves as a person, when its rarely ever that deep. i also think it kind of goes hand in hand with purity culture/performative wokeness. people who have a shallow view of good vs evil will see any critique of their faves and take it to be a reflection on THEM, and if someone doesn't like the thing that they love, then that reviewer is essentially calling them a bad person. when really, humans are just complex creatures with complex preferences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve started taking notes on my books in my planner/journal. I add stickers and print the book cover. It’s become so fun to jot down my thoughts when I’m done reading. It also tracks the books I’ve read for the month. If I love a book I will leave a review. I only read the reviews after I have read the book. You get so much more from the story when you can discuss the nuance. I wish it were discussion based on Goodreads and not just rambling about how steamy it was.
To be fair, there are discussions on Goodreads, but they take place in Groups. If you scroll down below all the reviews, you can see what Groups are discussing that particular book.
I think the 5 star scale is a tough one. I agree that everyone has their own rating guide and it can look vastly different from person to person. I use StoryGraph specifically because of the 1/2 star ratings and I do put a lot of time in the reviews I write for me to understand what I enjoyed and disliked about a book! I liked that you brought up biases! I have particular ones like resonating with books that have MC's of color or books set in the Caribbean. Also, I prefer little to no spice in my books so If a book has spicier content, I tend to note it in my review and may dock it a half star (mind you, I mostly read historical fiction, so I don't understand why there is spice there to begin with. lol) I really liked hearing your thoughts on this topic! It's a great video idea and worth the discourse.
Absolutely loved this discussion! I agree with your take on the 1-5 review scale. It’s all so so so subjective!! I’v been binge watching your channel and am super happy to have found you.😊
I hate people who rate all books they read as five stars. It is impossible for every book to be five stars. It shows they do not have any valid criticism.
this is part of the reason why i love storygraph so much. it still has the 1-5 star scale but has .25, .5, and .75 options to better show your opinions. it also has an optional section at the end where you can rate the pacing, say who it might be ideal for, etc.
I think 5/5 stars mean you truly enjoyed it for what it was. Not that the book was literally perfection(which no book is). But that doesn’t mean my opinion on the system the right opinion. Cause so many people have different ways of rating things. I rate books on how much I liked it in that moment. 1 meaning I hated it, 2 meaning it was semi-alright, but it could be better, 3 being an in between(good, but not great) 4 being really good/great but not top tier, and 5 being amazingly top tier. I also re-rate books cause sometimes I either didn’t like it as much as I did the first time or I liked it better after the first time around because I just didn’t read it at the right time
Interesting video! I already noticed that there are different rating systems because I am very critical and have only three five star books while my bestie rates around vibe. But I never thought about it any further, you are so right, this totally sways ratings and changes the perception of them. My own rating system is roughly 5 - perfection, it did everything right and there are no complaints 4 - it was a great book but I didn't like everything 3 - the positives outweigh the negatives, the book was totally fine but nothing special 2 - I didn't like the book but it at least gave me *something* 1 - I hated it 0 - I haven't given anything below 1 yet. I feel like if I would hate a book this much i would have dnf-ed it. And for everything in-between I look at how I feel. Also I'd really recommend storygraph!!! They have 0,25 ratings and they are not by Amazon the way goodreads is. And they also have 0 as a rating (no idea what to do with that). Personally I value writing reviews. I love contemplating why exactly I feel a certain way about a book and writing it down so I can back up my opinion with arguments. And if I don't remember my opinion I can just read my review again!!!
@@skylarearnhart I love yapping so reviews are the perfect excuse for me to do that!! Reviews are amazing. I never used goodreads much for the socials because I barely understood it so I suppose I can't relate to that ahaha.
the small part where you spoke about your mom thinking that she might've not gotten the book is so real because sometimes, i feel the same way. like i know i read the book and didn't find it all that but when a lot of reputable sources say that the book was good, i tend to think i maybe missed something and let it go. i'm trying to change it now though!
When recommending a book i usually put it in a bit of a scale of ‘i enjoyed it’ to ‘i hated it’ and a scale of ‘good writing’ and ‘bad writing’ Because i have books i would rate 3 stars because i could recognise that it WAS good writing but i didnt like the plot or characters or something and vice versa
Goodreads labels the star ratings, and I just go off that: 5 is "it was amazing" 4 is "really liked it" 3 is "liked it" 2 is "it's ok" 1 is "did not like it" And it gets too complicated for me to deeply consider technical skill for the star rating. If I consider that too much then most everything will be levelled out to a three. So I just rate based on enjoyment personally, it seems the most fair way of rating.
I agree and you make a lot of good points here! I think another factor of this is not all readers are (or want to be) reviewers but with social media like Goodreads, the rise of short-form content, and the "reviewification" of everything there is a strong social pull for all readers to be reviewers. I think some of the points in your video are exacerbated by people feeling that as a reader they also HAVE to be a reviewer rather than wanting to. Just chatting about a book is often long-form content that is hard to make "searchable" and takes longer to create. It's a higher barrier for extry, especially if it's not the part of reading you enjoy. And if you aren't someone who is passionate about or interested in reviewing, I can see how you could focus on the 5-star rating system leading to a spiral effect resulting in the issues you discuss in this video. I also enjoy John Green's essay about reviews from _The Anthropocene Reviewed_ which I think is also available as a podcast episode. I read it a few years ago but from what I remember it's about the absurdity of wrapping all of a big experience (like a book) into a review.
This is scary because Alyssa and the person in the clip saying you're an asshole if you rate books lower than 3 stars (and others ofc), they are reducing the already restrictive 5-star rating system down to a 3-star rating system, which to me seems crazy to have such limited options
I love rating books, but it's only for myself and those who care to hear my opinions. I'm not really active on any social media platforms and I don't feel the need to air out a book's dirty laundry to tiktok or instagram. I've posted one review (besides just ratings) out of all the books I've ever read. All other thoughts and opinions I put in a review journal so I can refer back to whatever book if needed or if someone specifically asks me what I thought of something. Only one person other than myself even has access to my Goodreads because I'm not really trying to convince a stranger to read or not read whatever book I hated or dislike. I rate both on vibes and plot/characters/story. I also rate DNF'd books if I finished more than 30%. One star = DNF'd, book probably upset me in someway that was unforgiviable or I found the book/writing to be problematic (ie. sexist, racist, etc.) . Didn't like the story/plot/characters. Wouldn't recommend to other people, and would tell people to not waste their time. Two stars = DNF'd most likely. Boring read. I found lots of problems with story/plot/characters. Wouldn't recommend to other people Three stars = Didn't feel any particular way about a book, wasn't bad or good. Couple of unforgettable complaints that hurt the reading experience. Three stars is kind of a complex rating for me because this includes books that are better than two, but I didn't enjoy as much as a four star book. May or may not recommend to other people Four stars = Liked the book, minor issues that prevented me from loving it. Would recommend to other people Five stars = Loved the book, no issues or was able to overlook most issues. Would recommend to other people. I feel like other people somewhat perform for social media when it comes to ratings which is why a lot of ratings are inflated. People don't want to get hate because they didn't like some book or get an endless string of "let people enjoy things". There was another video I watched recently called "booktok, brainrot, and why its okay to be a hater" by alisha not alihsha and I think she made a lot of good points about constructive criticism and how it's handled on social media.
My rating system 5 star: No major flaws. Captured my brain in a stranglehold 4 star: I liked it 3 star: Readable 2 star: Didn’t like it but I can see some good aspects 1 star: Basically DNF. I hated reading it from start to finish l
ty for this video, pls do more like this!!! u captured so many of the reasons why i completely abandoned the 5-star rating system, it just doesn't capture the nuance for my feelings on books. a book could've been crafted brilliantly but not have provided an emotional connection, mediocre but i'm attached to the characters or i'm invested in the story, and so much more!! i always love seeing ppl's rating systems but i personally live a much more care-free life without it 🤞
I use two separate 1-5 ratings: one is for my enjoyment, the other is for the quality. Because there are certain books I can recognize the quality of without enjoying it and I noticed that not enjoying something was causing me to rate things more poorly, even if it wasn't deserved. This probably comes from having a literature degree and learning to read analytically.
Just found your channel, and these are all great points! I dont think I could ever go as far as the 1-100 scale 😂, but I prefer to use The Storygraph's .25 star increments for a similar reason. I dont really rate anything less than a 2.5 because if it's that bad, I'll usually just DNF. My star rating system is just for me anyway.
THANK YOU!!! you can be critical of movies/books/shows that you still liked and enjoyed !! and it is TOTALLY okay if someone else has a completely different opinion!! i hate that nowadays it feels like you can't find flaws in something that is widely popular and beloved.
When rating books or movies on a five star scale, it helps me to convert the star ratings to percentages (basically the hundred point scale). That really puts the ratings into perspective for me. Before thinking about ratings in this way I also saw giving a book three stars as more negative than it actually is, since it’s really like giving a book 60%, meaning that you enjoyed over half of it. I also find it so insane to refuse to listen to criticism on your favorite novels😭😭isn’t hearing different perspectives on a book the whole point of posting and reading reviews on a platform like goodreads??
It's the same problem with movies, people have started looking at Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb numbers to tell what they like about a movie and whether they think the movie is good or bad without actually having to watch the movie themselves. Because of this, it has been difficult for me to get my friends to watch French movies with me which has been disappointing because some are really good even though American critics don't appreciate them because of their "Europeanness".
i enjoyed so much reflecting on this topic with your video. you are direct but also very kind while sharing your toughts :). i'm so subscribing to your channel. saludos desde méxico
I've stopped using Goodreads and StoryGraph so I don't leave reviews anymore. All I do is keep a book with a list of books I've read. No ratings, no review, just a long list. I never really bother rating books because I know my opinion will change later on. When I read "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow", I was frustrated by it and would've rated it a 2.5 or 3, but now when I think about the book, I see it as a 3.5 or 4. I also don't seek out reviews because I don't want my interest in a book/series to be swayed by anyone else. If I like it, I like it. If other people don't like it, they don't like it. Simple as that.
As someone with an undergrad degree in creative writing (going to start my MFA program this fall) and a MA in English Literature, the 5 star rating system makes me want to bang my head on a wall sometimes. I mean, when I remember to review books on my website I use it because people expect it and understand it and my Wordpress theme is set up for it. However, having the background that I do, I find it so hard to sit down and read a book without a critical lens. It's how my brain works. I've written reviews where I've pulled out one critical theory or another to analyze something in the book. I also read across genres. One of my favorite book series that I won't shut up about is Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's LitRPG and it's totally unhinged. I can see so many people not liking these books because they have never played an RPG video game and just don't get it. However, being someone that has played RPGs I find these books to be some of the most creative things out there (and the dude that does the audiobooks is amazing - I could praise Jeff Hayes all day). On the other hand I wrote my final paper for my last seminar class on Lincoln in the Bardo, which I didn't think I would like but actually do, on what Saunders was doing with Buddhism in the book (I got to use my Religious Studies undergrad double major for a change). Everyone brings something different to the table with what they read, how they read, why they read, etc. However, a lot of people do not know how to give a real critical review of a book. I also think people who do not read across genres have a harder time because they have a hard time appreciating something for what it is. Something like Punk Rock Jesus is going to be a totally different from Fourth Wing and it needs to be read and appreciated for what it is, and I think that is something a lot of booktok fails to understand.
Very interesting video! People have different tastes in everything so just because I like something doesn’t mean someone else will and that’s totally fine! I’ve seen soooo many toxic comments on GoodReads when people write their book reviews and I don’t get it. I rate books based on various factors, like the writing style, character development, world building, etc. Sometimes I even give a book a higher score because I read it in the right moment but all of that is secondary. The primary reason I read books is because I enjoy doing that.
I just stumbled across this video + channel but I think this will be an evergreen vid/commentary-there are people who only give positive reviews, but I find being positive often leads to deeper insights rather than flat-out laudatory overstatement-in a word, star ratings are bunk, be nice to authors, but don't be afraid to say you didn't like/finish/enjoy a book, criticism is one of the best things about reading!
I'm not on Good Reads but as an avid Letterboxd user, I cannot imagine using a system without half-stars. It's really not that complicated if you just think about it on a 1-10 scale. But you're definitely right about the meat being in the actual review as opposed to whatever arbitrary rating is given.
Why do we need a personal rating system? Is this the "I'm not like the other readers" syndrome? GoodReads displays the following ratings when you hover over the stars: 1. did not like it; 2. it was ok; 3. like it; 4. really like it; 5. it was amazing Why are people interpreting this in different ways? Why not adhere to the standard so that everyone is on the same level? Systems are in place for a reason, so everyone can easily understand each other. Now, thanks to those who rate 5 stars purely on "i like it/it was ok", we have a super unreliable system where shitty books have 5 stars while someone like Paul Auster or Truman Capote does not. 😑
great video! i’ve been in the book community for 10 hrs now and people getting upset when you don’t like a book they like isn’t new, from what i’ve noticed is that when you say you don’t like it they feel like you’re basically saying you don’t like them
I don’t think that critical thinking it dead, but I’ve realized the book community is performative for each other and not for the love of reading for each individual. When I see reviews, you’re right they say “it’s not for me” because they don’t want to trash on something someone else may like or “disclaimer these are my opinions” at the beginning. It’s frustrating because I get a held back review then idk if I want to read the book or not.
When I'm unsure about picking up a book, or it has a really high average, I always check the spoilerfree bad reviews. I'll do it with books I've loved, too, because they pick up stuff I probably didn't. Good reviews just say they are good and how much they loved them, while the bad ones really tell you what wasn't good. That said, I need my half and quarter star ratings, 1-5 is just too few imo
Very intresting video and subject! I love reading 1 star reviews of books, because they are usually well written. I agree with you that a lot of people are not fully honest on goodreads.
this video popped up on my feed and I really enjoyed it. Then I watched your other videos. I really like your vibe and how you talk about bookish content. subscribed :)
I use the 5 star rating on gr as my own reference point, it's not for other people. I rarely write reviews so it's a quick way to record what I thought. It's rare that I rate a book 1 or 2 stars as I have a pretty good handle on what kind of books I like and what to avoid, so when I do it's memorable. I don't care what other people think of my ratings or care to tell them why I like or don't like a book. It's for me only.
I stopped rating books when i switched over to Storygraph because logging a book as read doesn't automatically prompt you to give it a star rating. It also stopped me from thinking about books in terms of their rating.
I guarantee you book/reading influencers are never rating things low because they don’t want to discourage any authors from sending them arcs or PR. It’s a brand strategy
I think this illustrates why recently ive struggled with rating books. A mix of not wanting to rate too low, but also not too high "cuz youre not supposed to have a lot of 5 star reads" (which is bullshit. So for me ive just been putting my thoughts on the book in writing and posting that as my rating without adding a star rating. Its slowly allowing me to sometimes rate books again. Also because next to the rating ppl CAN read my reasoning and just a rating woulsnt fully encapsulate my opinions of the book i think.
everyone’s rating is different but also all books are different. Like icebreaker was a silly, fun time and for that I could give it 3-4 stars. But other books with more substance and important themes etc can be 4 stars too but it’s a completely different experience with different feelings. We should really focus more on how books make us feel instead of how we feel the need to rate it
I just use a simple emoji system to rate my books. Here are some examples from my last three reads: One Dark Window was a bit too gloomy for my taste. I give it a new moon, a broken heart, and a yawn 🌑💔😴. Operation Hail Mary was a stellar space adventure! I rate it a rocket, a planet, a space hero, and a big bang 🚀🪐👽💥. Crooked Kingdom was an epic fantasy heist full of clever twists! I give it a masked rogue, a mask, a treasure chest, and a key 🦹♂🎭💰🔑.
I like Storygraph. You have .25 stars, moods, plot and characters questions. I can really sit and think about the book and what I liked about it. It’s more like the “reader diary” we had in elementary school. I am from Bulgaria I don’t know if that’s a thing in western countries.
I keep an Excel spreadsheet where I invented my own rating system for books and fanfics I read : characters, relationships between characters, plot, and worldbuilding or atmosphere out of ten (how much i loved the characters. Since its my own system decimals are allowed and encouraged for more nuance as well as a few words to explain my point of view) and then an overall rating out of twenty. I also write reviews that range from a few lines for books I didn't really care for or dont have much to say about to a full-on essay which is how you know I loved this book because I wouldn't rant about it for like ten pages if it wasn't special to me.
Returning because I’m pondering this vid still a day later lol… I felt you mom’s vibe recently with Just For the Summer. I follow probably 20ish booktubers I have similar tastes with and trust judgement from, and all of then that read it gave it a 4 or 5 and loved it. I personally have never been so angry and annoyed reading a book! I had to read all of the 2 and 1 star ratings after to make sure I wasn’t crazy and that there were at least some people who felt how I did. That book and the high reviews had me thinking public people were paid to review it positively and then us unknown readers (or most besides me) thought they had to rate it highly or like it since it was the cool thing to do. I have never read such a frustrating book before and felt it was marketed all wrong in so many ways! Sorry, had to rant lol.
I think the history of the 5 star scale is interesting. In John Green's "The Anthropocene Reviewed" in one of the essays he talks about working at Booklist and how at that time the common way to publicly review a book was with a 2 sentence review. But Amazon actually created and popularized the 5-star system for books. But it didn't used to be that way! Also Goodreads is owned by Amazon.
Books I read rn get my emotional rating (how much fun I had) because I’m deciding on a rating system and then I’ll go back and put in a separate rating in my review because that’s so helpful to me
I personally use the CAWPILE system for this reason! I find it helps me think deeply about the books I’ve read, whilst also allowing pure enjoyment factor to filter into my rating. It also gives me the freedom to go up or down if I don’t feel satisfied with the numbers that come out :)
Uhh thank you! Lately I've been too self conscious to rate a book below 3, I felt like I was not doing them justice. Some books are 3 to me and 5 to some and 1 to others and it should be OK!
I'm someone who has a kneejerk fear of negativity towards things I like and I may be the exception and not helpful to the data but; I'm just conflict averse in general and very prone to flight response to things for no real reason. This may just be the anxiety However, also thinking of when things I like have been unpopular on a wider scale and then I've had people make fun of me and make personal attacks over a difference in taste I wonder if the issue is there's just a lot of actually mean people online so people get worried about having different opinions and it turning them into a target - we're in a weird state digitally I think - so people try to make their opinion seem bigger so they're the dominant opinion and not the target
"books i pretended to like" is crazy
3 stars for a book she despised?? Alyssa, girl, get your shit together! 😂
For real though, star ratings mean very little because we all rate things differently. I can love a book but recognise that it has problems, so it doesn't get 5 stars.
Giving 1 or 2 stars isn't mean, its just being honest. As long as you're not one of those people who review bomb or personally attack an author, its not personal.
Right lol. Her rating system has no room for books she just likes. It goes from “hate” to “incredible” like girl how do you live like that???
HAHA she's crazy for that fr i was like bruh ur not even on a 5-star system you're on a 3-star one 🤣
@@skylarearnhart Any day now and it'll just be a thumbs up or thumbs down😂
yeeeesss! What about the mediocre books?? Getting 4 stars for not being literally terrible is certifiably insane
@@skylarearnhart is her thought process that if it’s mediocre it’s terrible?
The fact that booktok has us thinking 3 stars is a bad rating
America wanted exceptionalism so hard that it made 5 the standard, so now people treat 5 as the standard. 5/5 means anything from perfection to mediocre. You give an user driver a 5 for not killing you. Which is good. But 3 would have been the same on the old system.
Such a good point😅
but i think this is because companies (Amazon) started adding user star ratings in things that are completely inappropriate. i mean the uber driver got you from A to B alive and therefore fulfilled all expectations so ofc that's 5/5 why would i deduct any points, that's mean! i orderd a stapler from Amazon and it turned up so 5/5 everything worked as it was supposed to! 5 stars works for art because it is trying to create a emotional connnection, or say something, or you ar admiring the craft . it's an experience, we can rate those on a spectrum.
The additional problems happen when corporations or other powers that be - push for only perfection.
My yearly employee survey has a rating system of 1-10 where 1-9 means the same thing as 1 (negative) and 10 is the only positive.
For the emotional “positive, neutral, negative” portions neutral also means negative.
We’re being trained to min-max life
i think it also happened with grades too. pop quizzes and stuff in school or minor little assignments instead of being rated from 0-100 would rated out of the number of questions. so you could get a 5/5 on a quiz and instead of a 100 it'd be written 5/5 and was mostly a completion grade for answering every question. i kind of "dumbed down" the grading scale a lot and instead of answering questions critically it was just about completely the question at all.
@@StanleyDevastating5* on anything for minimum or standard expectations lowers any room for improvement and provides a slide into mediocrity. There's no room to acknowledge anyone or any policy that is exceptional: the driver that helped with luggage, the driver interacted in a way that fit your frame of mind, the delivery guy said hello as you popped out to get your package, the company responded to your issue promptly and positively.
i rate off vibes big dawg
fr os the vibe is right i give it 5
it is the gamification of hobbies, rather than the joy of the hobby itself
Whoa I've never viewed of it this way... makes me sad when I realized I participate in this gamification
exactly
I think it's funny how so many people get defensive when other people rate their favorite books, because some of my favorite books aren't even 5 stars for me 😅 like I can have loads of fun when reading a book while being able to criticize it where I think it lacks 😅
yes i really enjoyed fairytale by stephen king, think about it constantly, ending was very anticlimatic tho and the main character had the "i am just a boy, i did bad things when i was 10 why does everyone think i can save em" mentality, gave it 4 stars but the beginning and middle, i was so hooked and loving it it overshadows the end and the 4 stars are not explaining all that
Same I have a couple of favourites that I would definitely not give 5 stars (probably 3, maybe 4) that I actually like more because they're imperfect. I think sometimes an idea is so interesting and original that even though it's not flawlessly executed, the way it has stuck with me as totally singular makes me need to absorb it into my identity and yap about it forever.
So true lol. I gave some books I thought were obviously perfect but not for me 5*, and at least two of my all time favorites are 4*
Agreed. Sometimes it’s just a vibe. Did I like it? Yes. Is it good? 🤷🏾♀️
Some books are a chore to get through (I think technology has ruined my attention span) but then the ending makes me cry in a good way.
"I don't give a fuck if you disagree with me, but I will be pissed if you don't tell me why." *stand up applause*
4:42 There is no bigger hater of the Twilight franchise than people who love the Twilight franchise
My best friend loves Twilight and will make fun of it constantly. There are twilight meme fb groups that just roast it.
There’s freedom in admitting something you love is “bad” and loving it anyway. It just makes people’s dislike of it roll off you and you continue enjoying the thing. People should try this approach more
Ohhhhh yes. I love Twilight too but I'm roasting it on a daily basis haha
The Old Beller meme gets me every. single. time. 😂😂 hilarious
Yes. That's me and my people.
Big Hero 6 is so ass, genuinely such a terrible movie, it was too fast paced, too many ideas were crammed into it and left underbaked only to be dropped, they introduce the audience to bot fighting at the very start so you would assume it’s important right? Nope, dropped after 10 minutes and not brought up again, was the grief and mental healthy decline of Hiro given the proper time and depth to make it mean anything? Nope.
A huge disappointment…that being said, I will be rewatching it today and make lots of headcannons for it. I still don’t like the movie but it is very fun to rewrite…
i honestly do like twilight but when i saw twilight i mean the books the movie was just horrible
This is a super interesting video and something I think about a lot!! I rate a lot of books 3 stars which means - I enjoyed my time reading them but I wont be obsessed with the stories or characters. 4 stars is a VERY enjoyable read, and 5 stars is *this book is literally part of my soul now*. I find it super interesting how other people rate as well : D thank you for the video!!
This is my rating for movies too!!
Same!
3*: had a nice time
4*: really good book, the world building, characters and plot are well thought through
5*: one of my favorite books, there's something i can deeply relate too or the story, characters and world building felt really unique
This is how I rate books.
my rating are similar lol.
1 star = absolute garbage
2 stars = had one or two things i liked but still not great
3 stars = it’s alright
4 stars = REALLY good but missing something to make it a five star
5 stars = i loved everything and i’ll only be talking about this for the next three months
I don’t usually share my ratings of books on a public platform atm. That’s basically what I do. 3 stars means I’m mostly neutral but it kept my interest enough to keep reading. Anything under that then I likely hated it or dnf. 5 stars to me means it was a book that feels like it was made for me and it very possibly could consume my personality.
I stopped paying attention to ratings overall, but I do tend to read the low star reviews and see what was bothering other readers enough to comment on. If these issues are things I have a problem with, I’ll move on, if not, I’ll probably give it a go. A 5 stars with hearts and emojis is useless to me.
This is exactly what I do, too!
I do the same. I will not read a 4 or 5 rating reviews cause most time the issues will not be pointed out. I will read a 1 or 2 star maybe 3. I usually go and read them after I’m reading a book and realizes I’m not really liking the book. This is to see if others were not liking the book for the same reasons. And I usually try and give a book a chance by reading 100 pages for I decides on how the book is going. Some people will read 30 pages and be like DNF. I just think that is too soon.
I do that as well. It does annoy me though when the 1 star reviews are extremely nitpicky. I’m currently reading a book where MLI has an alpaca named ‘Harry Styles’ and someone in the reviews said that no white cis man would do that, which 1. is pretty rude to the white cis men out there that would do that, and 2. the book literally says that his grandma let girl scouts name the alpaca. Not to mention the countless people saying it was ‘predictable’ even though it’s advertised as a hallmark movie in a book. I genuinely think some people can’t accept that a book just isn’t for them and have to find something to nitpick to find something to call the book ‘bad’ for. I couldn’t get into a lot of books, but that’s just because they weren’t for me. There was nothing wrong with them, they’re fine books, it just wasn’t my vibe. and I think a lot of people have trouble accepting that.
This was so wild to listen to, I had no idea people felt all this pressure around not reviewing highly. The autism got me out there handing out 1 stars like candy and never second guessing it once.
I badly review fanfiction and that's free.
Fellow autist here. My most common rating so far this year is 2 stars. That to me means "competently written, but I didn't like it" (1 star generally being the incompetently written ones or books I hate with an undying passion). It never occurred to me to try to cram social politics into my personal ratings. True, I can't comprehend social politics in the first place, but it sounds exhausting for all those folks out there second guessing their own opinions like that.
I'm audhd and it's just the same for me. I give so many books 1 stars I'm surprised my average isn't lower (it's 2)
im the same. I can become a real bitch when I'm rating things
me rating books big fat 0s in storygraph with no remorse haha i even go back and rate things lower once i think about them after reading other books. my average rating is still about 3.5ish but i have no problem rating books low. if they suck for me they suck.
When it comes to reviewing any medium of art, I have become completely against giving scores. One thing I've learned from a particular movie review website and a particular music review youtuber is that people will hyperfixate on the scores and not even care to look into the reviewer's detailed feelings on the art they are reviewing.
Same! I write analyses and have different shelves for different kinds of favorites, but never give stars or numbers
_"I think I'll be giving a light to decent 6 on... this one."_
I agree. I have five categories (characters, prose, etc) and assign a keyword or two to each, and note anything that stuck out to me or that I particularly liked or disliked. Not exactly a 'rating' system, just to record my overall thoughts and impressions at the time.
@@rkgrkg would you mind sharing what your five categories are? sounds interesting! :)
@@drew037 Sure! Characters, plot, writing, world-building and impact (did it hit me emotionally/make me think). A lot of people use similar categories, I think, but the keyword idea was borrowed from 2toRamble's video Rambler Rating System Explained. (highly recommend) They keep the stars too, but I don't need more than the keywords. Oh, and I do the 5 categories for more modern books only. I'm more flexible for books older than say the 1950s. A lot of modern books have a different style, formula and purpose.
TLDR; Another reason I don't care for stars is a book I love and a book I hate could end up with the same number of stars. Extreme example here, I love The Blade Itself to death, but would dock it for weak impact, plot and world-building (objectively, because I don't really care about world-building) = 3 stars (secretly 5). However, I loathed every second of Beloved (except my favourite lol line in all of fiction 'The stench stank.'🤣🤣🤣), and would dock it for the cringe-inducing pretentious prose and the heavy-handedness = 3 stars for cultural significance and impact (0 for enjoyment).
So yeah, stars. I just can't.
“Do you even like books?” “Why do you even read” my average rating is 3.08. Critical thinking is what gets my mind moving and makes me use my brain when reading even though it’s an unconscious behaviour. I don’t mean to be over-critical but I’ve been reading for over a decade and have read more than a thousand books.. I know what I like and dislike but there are so many factors that might lower or raise a rating.
that's a good average to have, it shows discernment between excellent, fine and not good which means you are actually communicating something by doing this.
My average is somewhere around that too. Which is actually surprisingly high considering I’m a very critical person. LOL. 3 stars is basically my default rating for things that were enjoyable but didn’t blow me away. I’m certainly not afraid to go lower if I didn’t enjoy it, though.
If I start reading a book that feels like a 1 or 2 star after a good amount of pages I'm not going to finish it. 😅
i think this may be part of my problem.. I've never DNF'ed a book (idk what goes on in my brain where im like ok i started this so i have to finish it or ill feel icky inside LOL)
I just skim it!
part of the issue with the rating system and the push for '5 stars only' is the self publishing sector. platforms like amazon completely tank any book that gets less than 5 stars, which bleeds out into the wider community. so while goodreads reviews mean absolutely nothing, a lot of people get up in arms at the idea of rating a book anything less than 5 stars because of the impact a less than 5 star review can have on other platforms or because it's 'mean' somehow because the author might see it.
but like, if every book is 5 stars, none of them are? ya know?
but at the end of the day, ratings are always going to be subjective because of personal taste. personally, i follow people who are honest in their ratings and have tastes similar to my own OR completely opposite of mine - some of the best recs come because person x gave it 1 star, just saying
ps: tell your friend 2 stars for a book they disliked so much they didn't even finish it is INSANE lmao
ugh i didn't know that about that (re: amazon) it seems like publishing has a lot of things wrong with it :/ that really sucks
hahahah i know 2 stars for a DNF is wild to me
@@skylarearnhart Late to the game here. Loved your video. It's not necessarily publishing that has the issue, it's Amazon. All of this comes back to Amazon and their huge purchasing power. Goodreads is owned by them. Amazon's algorithm punishes people who don't get 5 star ratings and forces publishers and authors into less than desirable pricing agreements. I refuse to buy any sort of book from Amazon and no longer use the cesspool that is Goodreads. There are loads of articles out there describing how Amazon is bad for the book business on many levels. I get it. They are "convenient" and they are "cheap" but at what cost, really?
I'm studying to become a librarian and the greatest thing I've learned is the importance of appeal factors in fiction and how it translates to Reader's Advisory, i.e. recommending books. There are six appeal factors (pacing, characterization, story line, frame/setting, tone, and language/style.) Every book utilizes these factors differently and every reader enjoys certain factors differently. A book may focus heavily on the characterization and language/style. Reader A who loves to really get to know the characters and loves beautiful prose might absolutely love this while Reader B, who likes fast-paced stories with a gripping plot and conversational tone, plods through reading the book and eventually DNF's it. Relying solely on a 5 star rating from either reader isn't really going to help Reader C decide if this is going to be a book she will enjoy. There really does need to be a better system.
But there already is a better system: detailed written reviews.
That's why I also use Storygraph to rate the books.
I keep Goodreads for my friends, but in the comment section, I put the half ratings (example: I put 3 stars but in the comments I put 3.5)
Okay but that's another thing: with 3.5 you'd usually round up to a 4, not a 3, so you giving it 3 stars might be indicative of you seeing it closer to 3 than 4 stars? Or maybe I'm just rambling..
i do this exact same thing!
@@alicelidell4114 I also half rate and rate down lower on the actual stars. It doesn’t make sense for me to vote a 3.5 as 4 cause it hasn’t hit 4 for me.
But now that I’m seeing people say it affects how books perform on selling platforms I’m probably gonna switch it to rating up on the stars and specifying the .5 in the text. They should just give as half star scales though cause a 5 point scale is so useless.
@alicelidell4114 I'm a storygraph user but have started using goodreads recently, I decided to round all my half stars up (so 3.5 to 4 etc) storygraph has .25 options too so if I felt the rating was worth less theyd have a 3.25 on StoryGraph and a 3 on Goodreads
everyone should start using storygraph because jeff bezos can eat shit and storygraph is founded and ceo'd by a black woman!
I definitely agree with your point about people turning their loved books into their personality and criticism of that is criticism of them. I definitely think the internet as it is and the echo chambers it produces has definitely exacerbated this (booktok, fandoms, the fact that it's harder to signify a concrete personality in the digital medium like you would offline - and oh boy, is everything online). Not to mention that with chick lit, romance books and other books really popular women and girls often garner criticism that's rooted in misogyny and I think a lot of readers and fans feel the need to defend that, to insist that it IS good, actually it's a masterpiece! Look at how it made them feel!
But I don't think the five star rating is destroying literature as we know it. It is doing some really annoying things to online reader spaces and experiences though. The 'if you don't rate it five stars you're an asshole' is a BONKERS entitled take though
The 'if you don't rate it five stars you're an asshole' comes from the usa-centric view that anything less than a 5-star rating means its shitpiss quality and shouldnt have ever been made and was a waste of time and money and effort. it is a huge problem, but so long as everything here is heavily corporatised, its not gonna go away.
I deleted my goodreads because I found that as I was reading a book I was more focused on what the rating might be, instead of enjoying the actual story. It’s been several months now and I’m loving reading again, without the self-imposed pressure of rating everything I consume.
I stopped rating or commenting. I just add things to “want to read” “in progress” and “read”
Exactly 💯
This is why I don’t believe it when someone says a book is five stars. When I give a book five stars, that means it is perfection in my eyes. It means I’m getting the special edition copies. It means I’m nonstop bothering my family to read it. But for other people, they give books five stars if they just made them feel the slightest emotion which is the bare minimum for a decent book imo, not a 5 star thing. Like she’s said in the video, if you can accept that it’s not good but you still enjoyed it, that’s an important distinction when rating a book. I currently have a book on my shelf that is a solid 3 stars. But I loved it. I recognize all of its flaws and I still loved it. But not in any universe am I going to give that book 5 stars.
For me, when you only have a scale of 1-5 in integers a la Goodreads, it doesn't make sense to have 5 be perfect because then you're reserving 20% of the scale for 1% (or lower, depending on if you believe perfection is even possible) of books. On a 1-100 scale or even 1-10 with half points scale it makes more sense to save that last point for the perfect or near perfect. But on Goodreads, a 5/5 is just an amazing book, because there's a LOT more of those than perfect books.
3 stars is my default rating. If it’s important/meaningful, worth a read/somewhat enjoyable, or i could see it being beloved by someone else with slightly different tastes but didn’t really hit for me, it gets a 3 (give it a shot, worth a read). When I rate my faves for the year, it would be 4s and 5s. If I had a lot of fun reading it and had outward emotions (laughter, crying) it bumps up to a 4 (highly recommend). If it completely ripped me away from reality, would not change a thing (even if my fave character died😢) and made me think “oh yes this is why I read” it gets a 5 (must read). If it’s problematic in some ways that the author needs to engage with and get better at or really boring or unoriginal, that’s when it drops to a 2 (don’t like, don’t recommend, reconsider your day job, author). I only save 1 stars for books I would burn. If I give a book 1 star I would personally fist fight the author if I saw them in public. I think some people (typically older people) get confused and think 1 star means first place lol.
Let me also add I would NEVER tag an author or link them in any way to a bad review. Sometimes I will talk to them in my review like they were my bestie (“seek therapy Josh malerman” is a personal fave quote) but clearly I don’t expect them to read it
5:59 giving 3⭐ to a book you despised is wiiiiiiild.
Girl I just found your channel today and have been going through a lil binge watch while I'm drawing. I didn't check your sub count bc I rarely look at that until I click the button myself, but THE FACT YOU ONLY HAVE 113 SUBS RN IN CRIMINAL???? I thought I had stumbled upon a 100k sub channel, your content has such good quality!!!
omg this is the nicest comment i've ever received thank u so much 😭❤
Okay thank you! Preach! I’ve noticed this rigid rating system in pretty much everything nowadays. I’m more active on Letterboxd (it’s like the movie version of goodreads), and this idea that a 3-star rating is mean is so prevalent there as well. You’ll see people giving 5-stars for everything, even very mediocre films. I think the term “masterpiece” is so overused these days too. Like if someone simply just enjoys something, now it’s a masterpiece. Whereas I feel like that term should be used in very specific instances in art. If someone is calling every single book or film made by someone a masterpiece, then the term just loses all meaning. There is no artist under the sun that can crank out a masterpiece every single time they make something.
I think hyperbole, in general, has made it hard to convey true greatness now. We’ve taking over the terms used for excellence and given them to mediocre things. But have not replaced the language or standards for the best of the best.
We literally changed the meaning of literally because we neeeeeddd more to convey how we feel. It’s so extreme that we use actual death to express our love for something.
Reading old letters feels so flat because emotions were not over inflated.
I think art is extremely subjective, and focusing too much on star ratings alone is just silly.. because they tell you NOTHING. its the same reason I stopped arguing with people about whether a certain band was good. There is really no way to concretely say they are or aren't when looking at it so black and white. If they say... "That singer sucks because her voice is too raspy.." I would be like, "Oh I will probably love it then!". I don't mind star ratings, but I often read reviews to gain an actual understanding of someone's reading experience. It's why I try to do written reviews on goodreads as much as possible. In fact, one of my favorite things to do is read the reviews after I finish a book. I think part of the reason reading is so fun is discussing the books afterward. The star rating thing is just an addition... but the more you read, the more you realize that they don't actually mean much. I don't really even pay attention to them unless the rating is REALLY low... which is rare. If that's the case, I will read reviews to find out why.
PEOPLE. SHIT. THEIR PANTS. OVER IT !! 😭😭😭😭
Admittedly I very rarely rate things lower than 4 stars nowadays (although I do still give 3 stars occasionally) BUT that's because my personal approach to reading is that I'm not going to continue reading a book I'm not enjoying and that I'm not actively excited to pick up and read and my personal approach to rating is that I won't rate a book I DNFed (a negative review with my reasons for dropping though... That's different and I do give out plenty of those).
Ironically I hardly give things 4 stars, not purposely though. I mostly give 2, 3 or 5 lol but that’s just cause I’m weird
My reading life changed for the better when I gave myself permission to DNF a book. Terrible writing? Stilted characters? Just not feeling it? DNF and move on; life is short! I also do not rate the books if I DNF them, but I do make notes in StoryGraph so in the future I can remind myself why I gave up on a particular book.
But I also give tons of 3 star ratings to books I enjoyed. To be a 4 star, it needs to have really drawn me in, and to be a 5 star it has to have consumed me and ruined and/or fixed my life in the best possible way. I just looked out of curiosity, and to date, I have 5-starred only 6% of the books I’ve reviewed. 🤷♀️
@@mymindness I used to be someone who could never DNF a book no matter how much I hated it and it was awful. I'm perhaps even more liberal of a dropper now as a result but it has vastly improved my overall experience as now I only really reading books that I really love.
For me a 3 is the lowest I'm willing to read and it's very borderline so a lot of books I might have rated a 3 tend to be dropped. Most of the books I finish land in the 3.5 to 4.5 range and I've only rated one book 5 stars this year because I'd say my requirements for being 5 stars are similar to yours.
Yes! I wish people would not rate a DNF. I've seen things like 'One Star: DNFed 30 pages in'. Didn't even read the book! I really like when people do as you do--leave a review sans stars explaining why they DNFed. That can actually be very helpful in deciding if I want to read/continue a book.
I view one-star as the star the author earned by writing a book, getting it published, and piqueing my interest enough to pick it up and start reading. No stars = none of that happened.
my biggest struggle with rating books is not knowing what perspective to go from, personal enjoyment or quality of the book itself. for instance, i didn’t love the virgin suicides that much because i was in a bit of a reading slump during that time, but at the same time i can fully acknowledge that it was a well written book and deserves to be rated highly.
Knocked loose in the back has me immediately intrigued
gotta rep my ky boys 😤 but have to admit my bf is a way bigger fan than i am hahaha
I personally stopped giving books a star rating.
I would fixate too much on what rating to give both while and after reading the book instead of just enjoying the experience.
I agree with pretty much everything you said but also KNOCKED LOOSE!!
For real though I never pay attention to ratings or reviews. If i wanna start a new book or show I'll just do it and see how I like it. I see so many posts on reddit (mostly about anime and manga) where people ask "is xyz show worth it? Will i like it?" No one can know except you!!! It drives me crazy lol
Even if I love a book, I like seeing different opinions on it. It's fun sometimes! Or if I don't like a book, it's interesting to consider why someone did. It makes me think, as it brings in other perpectives to the mix. But personally, I remain confident about my experience of reading soemthing. Everyone has different tastes, and what you enjoy is going to be unique to you!
Honestly this point goes beyond just books. In gaming, the rating system is percentage based. So 1% to 100%. However that system has also been screwed up because ANY system that inflicts numerical value to something is flawed. Because we always want that perfect 5☆ or 100% positive experience. For me, a 60% positive is a game that is mediocre but has redeemable qualities. To someone else, that's a game they will never touch because 60% is BASICALLY 0% to them. It's so silly.
Ahhhhh I've seen myself do this sometimes. When a book is rated below 3.5 average on Goodreads my brain is like "yeaaah maybe that's not really good y'know, go buy something else". And I know I shouldn't so I read the book any way, but, yeah :(
oooo this was a super interesting vid. ppl's rating scales being different is smth that i think doesn't get brought up enough in discussions about reader reviews. i know the way i star books is pretty specific, esp my 5 stars (only given to books i see myself rereading multiple times in my lifetime). something 5 star for me could be someone else's 3 star!
and i think you hit the nail on the head wrt people seeing their favs getting low stars and taking it very personally. especially younger people, they tend to view people's opinions on the things they love as opinions on themselves as a person, when its rarely ever that deep.
i also think it kind of goes hand in hand with purity culture/performative wokeness. people who have a shallow view of good vs evil will see any critique of their faves and take it to be a reflection on THEM, and if someone doesn't like the thing that they love, then that reviewer is essentially calling them a bad person. when really, humans are just complex creatures with complex preferences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve started taking notes on my books in my planner/journal. I add stickers and print the book cover. It’s become so fun to jot down my thoughts when I’m done reading.
It also tracks the books I’ve read for the month. If I love a book I will leave a review. I only read the reviews after I have read the book. You get so much more from the story when you can discuss the nuance. I wish it were discussion based on Goodreads and not just rambling about how steamy it was.
To be fair, there are discussions on Goodreads, but they take place in Groups. If you scroll down below all the reviews, you can see what Groups are discussing that particular book.
I think the 5 star scale is a tough one. I agree that everyone has their own rating guide and it can look vastly different from person to person. I use StoryGraph specifically because of the 1/2 star ratings and I do put a lot of time in the reviews I write for me to understand what I enjoyed and disliked about a book! I liked that you brought up biases! I have particular ones like resonating with books that have MC's of color or books set in the Caribbean. Also, I prefer little to no spice in my books so If a book has spicier content, I tend to note it in my review and may dock it a half star (mind you, I mostly read historical fiction, so I don't understand why there is spice there to begin with. lol) I really liked hearing your thoughts on this topic! It's a great video idea and worth the discourse.
Absolutely loved this discussion! I agree with your take on the 1-5 review scale. It’s all so so so subjective!! I’v been binge watching your channel and am super happy to have found you.😊
thank you sm!! happy to have u here! :,)
I hate people who rate all books they read as five stars. It is impossible for every book to be five stars. It shows they do not have any valid criticism.
this is part of the reason why i love storygraph so much. it still has the 1-5 star scale but has .25, .5, and .75 options to better show your opinions. it also has an optional section at the end where you can rate the pacing, say who it might be ideal for, etc.
I think 5/5 stars mean you truly enjoyed it for what it was. Not that the book was literally perfection(which no book is). But that doesn’t mean my opinion on the system the right opinion. Cause so many people have different ways of rating things. I rate books on how much I liked it in that moment. 1 meaning I hated it, 2 meaning it was semi-alright, but it could be better, 3 being an in between(good, but not great) 4 being really good/great but not top tier, and 5 being amazingly top tier. I also re-rate books cause sometimes I either didn’t like it as much as I did the first time or I liked it better after the first time around because I just didn’t read it at the right time
"I will be pissed if you can't tell me why" YES! Give me coherent and well thought out opinions! Please!
Interesting video!
I already noticed that there are different rating systems because I am very critical and have only three five star books while my bestie rates around vibe. But I never thought about it any further, you are so right, this totally sways ratings and changes the perception of them.
My own rating system is roughly
5 - perfection, it did everything right and there are no complaints
4 - it was a great book but I didn't like everything
3 - the positives outweigh the negatives, the book was totally fine but nothing special
2 - I didn't like the book but it at least gave me *something*
1 - I hated it
0 - I haven't given anything below 1 yet. I feel like if I would hate a book this much i would have dnf-ed it.
And for everything in-between I look at how I feel.
Also I'd really recommend storygraph!!! They have 0,25 ratings and they are not by Amazon the way goodreads is. And they also have 0 as a rating (no idea what to do with that).
Personally I value writing reviews. I love contemplating why exactly I feel a certain way about a book and writing it down so I can back up my opinion with arguments. And if I don't remember my opinion I can just read my review again!!!
i love my storygraph data
@@skylarearnhart I love yapping so reviews are the perfect excuse for me to do that!! Reviews are amazing. I never used goodreads much for the socials because I barely understood it so I suppose I can't relate to that ahaha.
3 stars for a book you despise???? i wouldnt give that many stars to something i didnt like
Same. When i rate something 3 stars, the book is considered mid. I didn't love nor hate it. 1-2 is it's not for me, or i disliked/ hated the book
Not giving a book your true rating rather that's low or not is pick me energy and makes me wanna rage.
the small part where you spoke about your mom thinking that she might've not gotten the book is so real because sometimes, i feel the same way. like i know i read the book and didn't find it all that but when a lot of reputable sources say that the book was good, i tend to think i maybe missed something and let it go. i'm trying to change it now though!
When recommending a book i usually put it in a bit of a scale of ‘i enjoyed it’ to ‘i hated it’ and a scale of ‘good writing’ and ‘bad writing’
Because i have books i would rate 3 stars because i could recognise that it WAS good writing but i didnt like the plot or characters or something and vice versa
Goodreads labels the star ratings, and I just go off that:
5 is "it was amazing"
4 is "really liked it"
3 is "liked it"
2 is "it's ok"
1 is "did not like it"
And it gets too complicated for me to deeply consider technical skill for the star rating. If I consider that too much then most everything will be levelled out to a three. So I just rate based on enjoyment personally, it seems the most fair way of rating.
I agree and you make a lot of good points here! I think another factor of this is not all readers are (or want to be) reviewers but with social media like Goodreads, the rise of short-form content, and the "reviewification" of everything there is a strong social pull for all readers to be reviewers. I think some of the points in your video are exacerbated by people feeling that as a reader they also HAVE to be a reviewer rather than wanting to. Just chatting about a book is often long-form content that is hard to make "searchable" and takes longer to create. It's a higher barrier for extry, especially if it's not the part of reading you enjoy. And if you aren't someone who is passionate about or interested in reviewing, I can see how you could focus on the 5-star rating system leading to a spiral effect resulting in the issues you discuss in this video.
I also enjoy John Green's essay about reviews from _The Anthropocene Reviewed_ which I think is also available as a podcast episode. I read it a few years ago but from what I remember it's about the absurdity of wrapping all of a big experience (like a book) into a review.
This is scary because Alyssa and the person in the clip saying you're an asshole if you rate books lower than 3 stars (and others ofc), they are reducing the already restrictive 5-star rating system down to a 3-star rating system, which to me seems crazy to have such limited options
I love the soft purple lights and the Knocked Loose poster in the BG and the bookshelf - THIS is such a pleasing aesthetic
I love rating books, but it's only for myself and those who care to hear my opinions. I'm not really active on any social media platforms and I don't feel the need to air out a book's dirty laundry to tiktok or instagram. I've posted one review (besides just ratings) out of all the books I've ever read. All other thoughts and opinions I put in a review journal so I can refer back to whatever book if needed or if someone specifically asks me what I thought of something. Only one person other than myself even has access to my Goodreads because I'm not really trying to convince a stranger to read or not read whatever book I hated or dislike. I rate both on vibes and plot/characters/story. I also rate DNF'd books if I finished more than 30%.
One star = DNF'd, book probably upset me in someway that was unforgiviable or I found the book/writing to be problematic (ie. sexist, racist, etc.) . Didn't like the story/plot/characters. Wouldn't recommend to other people, and would tell people to not waste their time.
Two stars = DNF'd most likely. Boring read. I found lots of problems with story/plot/characters. Wouldn't recommend to other people
Three stars = Didn't feel any particular way about a book, wasn't bad or good. Couple of unforgettable complaints that hurt the reading experience. Three stars is kind of a complex rating for me because this includes books that are better than two, but I didn't enjoy as much as a four star book. May or may not recommend to other people
Four stars = Liked the book, minor issues that prevented me from loving it. Would recommend to other people
Five stars = Loved the book, no issues or was able to overlook most issues. Would recommend to other people.
I feel like other people somewhat perform for social media when it comes to ratings which is why a lot of ratings are inflated. People don't want to get hate because they didn't like some book or get an endless string of "let people enjoy things". There was another video I watched recently called "booktok, brainrot, and why its okay to be a hater" by alisha not alihsha and I think she made a lot of good points about constructive criticism and how it's handled on social media.
My rating system
5 star: No major flaws. Captured my brain in a stranglehold
4 star: I liked it
3 star: Readable
2 star: Didn’t like it but I can see some good aspects
1 star: Basically DNF. I hated reading it from start to finish l
ty for this video, pls do more like this!!! u captured so many of the reasons why i completely abandoned the 5-star rating system, it just doesn't capture the nuance for my feelings on books. a book could've been crafted brilliantly but not have provided an emotional connection, mediocre but i'm attached to the characters or i'm invested in the story, and so much more!! i always love seeing ppl's rating systems but i personally live a much more care-free life without it 🤞
I use two separate 1-5 ratings: one is for my enjoyment, the other is for the quality. Because there are certain books I can recognize the quality of without enjoying it and I noticed that not enjoying something was causing me to rate things more poorly, even if it wasn't deserved. This probably comes from having a literature degree and learning to read analytically.
this is so interesting!! sometimes i have a hard time with rating books for this reason so maybe ill adopt this :)
Just found your channel, and these are all great points! I dont think I could ever go as far as the 1-100 scale 😂, but I prefer to use The Storygraph's .25 star increments for a similar reason. I dont really rate anything less than a 2.5 because if it's that bad, I'll usually just DNF. My star rating system is just for me anyway.
I loveeeee your vids! Your criticism is so well thought out and it's lovely to hear you talk!
THANK YOU!!! you can be critical of movies/books/shows that you still liked and enjoyed !! and it is TOTALLY okay if someone else has a completely different opinion!! i hate that nowadays it feels like you can't find flaws in something that is widely popular and beloved.
When rating books or movies on a five star scale, it helps me to convert the star ratings to percentages (basically the hundred point scale). That really puts the ratings into perspective for me. Before thinking about ratings in this way I also saw giving a book three stars as more negative than it actually is, since it’s really like giving a book 60%, meaning that you enjoyed over half of it. I also find it so insane to refuse to listen to criticism on your favorite novels😭😭isn’t hearing different perspectives on a book the whole point of posting and reading reviews on a platform like goodreads??
It's the same problem with movies, people have started looking at Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb numbers to tell what they like about a movie and whether they think the movie is good or bad without actually having to watch the movie themselves. Because of this, it has been difficult for me to get my friends to watch French movies with me which has been disappointing because some are really good even though American critics don't appreciate them because of their "Europeanness".
What French movie would you recommend to start with cause I love to watch world cinema but I’ve never ventured into French cinema
i enjoyed so much reflecting on this topic with your video. you are direct but also very kind while sharing your toughts :). i'm so subscribing to your channel.
saludos desde méxico
I've stopped using Goodreads and StoryGraph so I don't leave reviews anymore. All I do is keep a book with a list of books I've read. No ratings, no review, just a long list.
I never really bother rating books because I know my opinion will change later on. When I read "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow", I was frustrated by it and would've rated it a 2.5 or 3, but now when I think about the book, I see it as a 3.5 or 4.
I also don't seek out reviews because I don't want my interest in a book/series to be swayed by anyone else. If I like it, I like it. If other people don't like it, they don't like it. Simple as that.
I'm gonna go back to doing this
"if you late books lower than a 3, you're an asshole" HUH
As someone with an undergrad degree in creative writing (going to start my MFA program this fall) and a MA in English Literature, the 5 star rating system makes me want to bang my head on a wall sometimes. I mean, when I remember to review books on my website I use it because people expect it and understand it and my Wordpress theme is set up for it. However, having the background that I do, I find it so hard to sit down and read a book without a critical lens. It's how my brain works. I've written reviews where I've pulled out one critical theory or another to analyze something in the book. I also read across genres. One of my favorite book series that I won't shut up about is Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's LitRPG and it's totally unhinged. I can see so many people not liking these books because they have never played an RPG video game and just don't get it. However, being someone that has played RPGs I find these books to be some of the most creative things out there (and the dude that does the audiobooks is amazing - I could praise Jeff Hayes all day). On the other hand I wrote my final paper for my last seminar class on Lincoln in the Bardo, which I didn't think I would like but actually do, on what Saunders was doing with Buddhism in the book (I got to use my Religious Studies undergrad double major for a change). Everyone brings something different to the table with what they read, how they read, why they read, etc. However, a lot of people do not know how to give a real critical review of a book. I also think people who do not read across genres have a harder time because they have a hard time appreciating something for what it is. Something like Punk Rock Jesus is going to be a totally different from Fourth Wing and it needs to be read and appreciated for what it is, and I think that is something a lot of booktok fails to understand.
Very interesting video! People have different tastes in everything so just because I like something doesn’t mean someone else will and that’s totally fine! I’ve seen soooo many toxic comments on GoodReads when people write their book reviews and I don’t get it. I rate books based on various factors, like the writing style, character development, world building, etc. Sometimes I even give a book a higher score because I read it in the right moment but all of that is secondary. The primary reason I read books is because I enjoy doing that.
I just stumbled across this video + channel but I think this will be an evergreen vid/commentary-there are people who only give positive reviews, but I find being positive often leads to deeper insights rather than flat-out laudatory overstatement-in a word, star ratings are bunk, be nice to authors, but don't be afraid to say you didn't like/finish/enjoy a book, criticism is one of the best things about reading!
I'm not on Good Reads but as an avid Letterboxd user, I cannot imagine using a system without half-stars. It's really not that complicated if you just think about it on a 1-10 scale. But you're definitely right about the meat being in the actual review as opposed to whatever arbitrary rating is given.
Why do we need a personal rating system? Is this the "I'm not like the other readers" syndrome? GoodReads displays the following ratings when you hover over the stars: 1. did not like it; 2. it was ok; 3. like it; 4. really like it; 5. it was amazing
Why are people interpreting this in different ways? Why not adhere to the standard so that everyone is on the same level? Systems are in place for a reason, so everyone can easily understand each other. Now, thanks to those who rate 5 stars purely on "i like it/it was ok", we have a super unreliable system where shitty books have 5 stars while someone like Paul Auster or Truman Capote does not. 😑
great video! i’ve been in the book community for 10 hrs now and people getting upset when you don’t like a book they like isn’t new, from what i’ve noticed is that when you say you don’t like it they feel like you’re basically saying you don’t like them
I don’t think that critical thinking it dead, but I’ve realized the book community is performative for each other and not for the love of reading for each individual. When I see reviews, you’re right they say “it’s not for me” because they don’t want to trash on something someone else may like or “disclaimer these are my opinions” at the beginning. It’s frustrating because I get a held back review then idk if I want to read the book or not.
“Is an honest review really worth the loneliness of no one agreeing with you?”
Damn this video was SO good I loved your analysis
Did not expect a Knocked Loose poster lmao, that's awesome
This is so well said! This is also I feel about Letterboxd and movie reviews
Edit: just got to the part where you mentioned Letterboxd 😅
When I'm unsure about picking up a book, or it has a really high average, I always check the spoilerfree bad reviews. I'll do it with books I've loved, too, because they pick up stuff I probably didn't. Good reviews just say they are good and how much they loved them, while the bad ones really tell you what wasn't good.
That said, I need my half and quarter star ratings, 1-5 is just too few imo
Thank you for this. It was informative, and it has given me food for thought. I will revisit my rating system and make some tweaks to it.
Very intresting video and subject! I love reading 1 star reviews of books, because they are usually well written. I agree with you that a lot of people are not fully honest on goodreads.
this video popped up on my feed and I really enjoyed it. Then I watched your other videos. I really like your vibe and how you talk about bookish content. subscribed :)
I use the 5 star rating on gr as my own reference point, it's not for other people. I rarely write reviews so it's a quick way to record what I thought. It's rare that I rate a book 1 or 2 stars as I have a pretty good handle on what kind of books I like and what to avoid, so when I do it's memorable. I don't care what other people think of my ratings or care to tell them why I like or don't like a book. It's for me only.
I stopped rating books when i switched over to Storygraph because logging a book as read doesn't automatically prompt you to give it a star rating. It also stopped me from thinking about books in terms of their rating.
I guarantee you book/reading influencers are never rating things low because they don’t want to discourage any authors from sending them arcs or PR. It’s a brand strategy
I think this illustrates why recently ive struggled with rating books. A mix of not wanting to rate too low, but also not too high "cuz youre not supposed to have a lot of 5 star reads" (which is bullshit.
So for me ive just been putting my thoughts on the book in writing and posting that as my rating without adding a star rating. Its slowly allowing me to sometimes rate books again. Also because next to the rating ppl CAN read my reasoning and just a rating woulsnt fully encapsulate my opinions of the book i think.
Good video, I like your unapologetic honesty, a rare find nowadays
I would love more of this lifestyle content from you -from an aspiring badass working mom in tech
everyone’s rating is different but also all books are different. Like icebreaker was a silly, fun time and for that I could give it 3-4 stars. But other books with more substance and important themes etc can be 4 stars too but it’s a completely different experience with different feelings. We should really focus more on how books make us feel instead of how we feel the need to rate it
I just use a simple emoji system to rate my books. Here are some examples from my last three reads:
One Dark Window was a bit too gloomy for my taste. I give it a new moon, a broken heart, and a yawn 🌑💔😴.
Operation Hail Mary was a stellar space adventure! I rate it a rocket, a planet, a space hero, and a big bang 🚀🪐👽💥.
Crooked Kingdom was an epic fantasy heist full of clever twists! I give it a masked rogue, a mask, a treasure chest, and a key 🦹♂🎭💰🔑.
this is cute
This is exactly how I think, get out my head!!
omg the knocked loose poster in the background!!
completely unrelated to the video but the knocked loose poster in the back made me so happy
I rate using the A+ to F- grading system lol.
i'd honestly say it's just social media in general destroying literature
I like Storygraph. You have .25 stars, moods, plot and characters questions. I can really sit and think about the book and what I liked about it. It’s more like the “reader diary” we had in elementary school. I am from Bulgaria I don’t know if that’s a thing in western countries.
I usually read the 1-3 star reviews before I buy a book.
I keep an Excel spreadsheet where I invented my own rating system for books and fanfics I read : characters, relationships between characters, plot, and worldbuilding or atmosphere out of ten (how much i loved the characters. Since its my own system decimals are allowed and encouraged for more nuance as well as a few words to explain my point of view) and then an overall rating out of twenty. I also write reviews that range from a few lines for books I didn't really care for or dont have much to say about to a full-on essay which is how you know I loved this book because I wouldn't rant about it for like ten pages if it wasn't special to me.
Returning because I’m pondering this vid still a day later lol… I felt you mom’s vibe recently with Just For the Summer. I follow probably 20ish booktubers I have similar tastes with and trust judgement from, and all of then that read it gave it a 4 or 5 and loved it. I personally have never been so angry and annoyed reading a book! I had to read all of the 2 and 1 star ratings after to make sure I wasn’t crazy and that there were at least some people who felt how I did. That book and the high reviews had me thinking public people were paid to review it positively and then us unknown readers (or most besides me) thought they had to rate it highly or like it since it was the cool thing to do. I have never read such a frustrating book before and felt it was marketed all wrong in so many ways! Sorry, had to rant lol.
I think the history of the 5 star scale is interesting. In John Green's "The Anthropocene Reviewed" in one of the essays he talks about working at Booklist and how at that time the common way to publicly review a book was with a 2 sentence review. But Amazon actually created and popularized the 5-star system for books. But it didn't used to be that way!
Also Goodreads is owned by Amazon.
Great video! I think you have a fairly common rating system and your friend just has a special one 😎
Books I read rn get my emotional rating (how much fun I had) because I’m deciding on a rating system and then I’ll go back and put in a separate rating in my review because that’s so helpful to me
I personally use the CAWPILE system for this reason! I find it helps me think deeply about the books I’ve read, whilst also allowing pure enjoyment factor to filter into my rating. It also gives me the freedom to go up or down if I don’t feel satisfied with the numbers that come out :)
giving this video an extra star for the KL poster in the background
Uhh thank you! Lately I've been too self conscious to rate a book below 3, I felt like I was not doing them justice. Some books are 3 to me and 5 to some and 1 to others and it should be OK!
I'm someone who has a kneejerk fear of negativity towards things I like and I may be the exception and not helpful to the data but; I'm just conflict averse in general and very prone to flight response to things for no real reason. This may just be the anxiety
However, also thinking of when things I like have been unpopular on a wider scale and then I've had people make fun of me and make personal attacks over a difference in taste
I wonder if the issue is there's just a lot of actually mean people online so people get worried about having different opinions and it turning them into a target - we're in a weird state digitally I think - so people try to make their opinion seem bigger so they're the dominant opinion and not the target
this is such a good point, i definitely feel the anxiety also (why it took me so long to start a channel lol)