Always felt like your ratings are fair, it's one of the reasons I feel like I can trust your ratings. As for me, no one cares how or why I rate books, but one thing I will say that you touched on, I do take the prominence of the work into account. If the book is not that well known, I tend to rate a bit higher, simply because I know for new or struggling authors, Goodreads ratings can make or break a book. (shouldn't be this way, but algorithms gonna algorithm). I will still give a bad book a bad rating, but if I'm on the fence about a book, I will go the higher rating. If it's a big book, like a Sanderson or GRRM, they don't need my rating, I can be harsh. And since no one cares about how I rate my books, I don't have to worry about consistency. I can rate a Sanderson 4 stars even though it is light years better than some random self published LITRPG book that I read that I also gave 4 stars to.
Yea I think half stars are what help me still give books good ratings on goodreads while also accurately representing the spread in my own internal spreadsheet.
When i finish a book, i usually wait a day or two and than rate it based on my feeling. I've had a bit of time to think about it so the first giant wave of emotions is over, but i still feel enough and remember enough. Than i'm happy with my rating and it usually stays that way. if my feelings do change over time, i alter my rating if it goes up, but if it goes down, i can't be bothered.
I always like to log that I finished right away on storygraph but by the time I transfer that data to a wrap up or goodreads I have had more time to think and adjust if need be but even then its only normally a half star difference
I use quarter stars, and I like it because it adds a little more flexibility to my ratings since I fluctuate a lot. I’m the type of mood reader that changes ratings as I read more books throughout the year so I find myself comparing values between reads to see where I stand and if certain reads hold up as time passes. Loved this video!
This was great, I love hearing people’s reasoning behind ratings. I give out 1 star ratings pretty freely - if I can’t think of a single thing I liked about the book, it gets a 1. I’ve actually given a few books a 1.5 this year. My criteria for that is if I mostly disliked it but there was one small thing I liked. Two stars is for books I mostly disliked but there were a few things I liked. Other than that, my rating scale is pretty similar to yours.
I think even by your criteria I have not recently read any books that I would give 1 star, typically if I am not having a good time I am more likely to stop reading and even if I finish it I can normally think of a few ok things to give it 2 stars.
This was interesting to hear, thanks! Even though I don't rate books with numerical units, your ideas about wanting to read vs actually enjoying vs the author's intent and execution made a lot of sense to me. They made me think again why I like what I like.
I found your use of consumability - especially in the 3 vs 3.5 star range. Usually the way I rate my books is I enter the number I feel in the spreadsheet and then go about my day. Then, I look at it when I put my next book and think whether or not it deserves that number.
Fun hearing your thoughts on this topic! I no longer rate books, but I say do it if it’s fun for you, and it seems like it is! Maybe I’m slow to things, but thinking of books as “projects” is a fairly new concept to me. I’ve heard you and a few other BookTubers describe books that way, and I think that’s really interesting! ✨
Oh for sure, if rating books stressed me out I would just stop but its something that I like doing and I feel I am self consistent enough, ironically when I tried to use a spreadsheet system was the only time I got super stressed about it. I don't like dividing books into parts to rate them, just like judging the whole lol
I rarely give 1.5 ratings either! I normally figure that if I disliked it that much it might as well be a 1. 2.5 is a little more common for me, although 2 stars normally = I was bored, so I'm less likely to have finished it. People laugh at me for not giving out many 5* but I like having my absolute favourites separate from the greats 🤣
I'm perpetually behind in actually rating/reviewing things on Goodreads too... 😅 I always round down, though, since I know I definitely rate higher than average. I rate purely on engagement, so 5 stars for me just means I was thoroughly immersed the whole read and nothing brought me out of it - no bearing on lasting impressions, etc, just it was perfect as far as my desire to be fully in the world of the book for the whole read.
I think by that standard it would be hard for me to give anything 5 but I think my brain just finds a hard time being completely immersed, its part of why my commute really helped me get back into reading cause it was 2 30-40 minute dedicated reading sessions a day where nothing else distracted me.
⭐️ I have categories that I rate each book in on a scale from 1 to 5--prose/writing, plot/story, characters, thematic dialogue, and overall enjoyment--then average those out and round (usually down) the result to half stars for StoryGraph and whole stars for GoodReads.
I do this this too! The common ones across all of my reads are style/writing and themes. With nonfiction I include a knowledge/perspective category. Graphic novels obviously have art as a category. And then for fiction I add in characters and plot, and world-building if it’s speculative fiction.
I tried to do something like this and it just did not work for me, which is odd since I am generally a very analytical person. But also sometimes I feel like the categories are weighted differently from book to book? Like one book might have had only ok plot but the characters were out of this world so I didn't care so the 5 star character weight internally blows away the 2-3 star plot. Idk I just struggle with that system and that was part of how I got stressed with rating temporarily.
Always interesting to hear how other people approach rating their books! I feel like we have a very similar rating system though, and my star ratings mean the same as yours do (if that makes sense, lol). When I first got back into reading, I gave almost everything 5 stars because I wasn't familiar with any tropes etc., so everything felt exciting and new to me. Now I am very stingy with my 5 star ratings and only give them out when I feel like a book will stick with me and has the potential to become a new favourite. Anyway, this was a super fun video!! 🥰
4.5 stars help me feel like I can be stingy with 5s without feeling like I am no longer loving things that I am reading, not sure if that makes sense at all but I was so happy when I added half stars into my rating!
⭐️ these are some of my favorite types of videos to watch! I’d be interested to know how a change in genre or age (MG, YA, adult) might change how you rate a book. for me I have a hard time picking up YA bc I’ll want it to have the qualities of adult fic and my initial instinct is to rate it lower. but i also know that it’s not the intention of the book do be like adult fic. idk if that makes sense or not!
Genre or target audience does not normally affect how I rate although of course some genres, age target, length of books are harder for me to give 5 stars just cause of my personal taste since my system is so subjective. I do take into account the project of the work which includes intended audience etc. But genre and age are more a factor for what books I pick up and less how I end up rating them after reading.
I find the hardest thing about rating is the variety of genres. This probelm goes for movies and TV as well. Trying to compare serious historical fiction with silly camp farce is very hard. There is a really long list of subjective things that goes into rating. They are good for snapshot, and helpful if you know the person, but as you said, nothing compare to words.
wow our rating systems are very similar hahaha i'm even reluctant like you to rate books 1 star except for really terrible classics. i don't usually bother with half stars but sometimes they're necessary. also i'm fairly liberal with my 5 stars. if i enjoyed reading and don't have much or anything bad to say about then it's a 5 star in my book
That's how I use to be but then I wanted an easy way to separate my favorites from the rest. And 4.5 I can always round up on goodreads to help the book but in my own records I know that its not the same as my true 5 stars!
I always have to remember when some people don't use that standard and mentally adjust "ok so that 1 is more like a 2 on my scale" which is not great but helps a little when someone gives of a favorite of mine 1 star 😆
I'd my rating system is quite simple and it's based mostly on enjoyment 🤔 ⭐⭐ - the book _actively_ made me angry (you know that moment when you go "Oh, _hell_ no" is when a book is getting 2⭐ from me 😅) ⭐⭐⭐ - ok, but didn't touch me in any significant way ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - great (I don't give books 5⭐ on first read, except for a very few rare exceptions) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - only for rereads that I highly enjoy, and reread in general rises my rating of a book because it means that I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to pick it up again (the only other way for me to give something 5⭐ would be for it to change my life, my perception of the world in some significant way - great examples would be 1984 or Brave New World. Have I enjoyed these stories? I rated both of them 5⭐ even though I didn't enjoy my time with them and don't really plan on rereading them).
@@LiteratureScienceAlliance Yeah, I don't think that I have met anyone else either who uses this system XD But considering that my rating is based on my enjoyment lvl, this system just makes sense in my head 😁
A 5🌟 Book for me is when I can't stop thinking about the book when I'm not reading it. Agree.. it is a "special sauce" 😊
Always felt like your ratings are fair, it's one of the reasons I feel like I can trust your ratings.
As for me, no one cares how or why I rate books, but one thing I will say that you touched on, I do take the prominence of the work into account. If the book is not that well known, I tend to rate a bit higher, simply because I know for new or struggling authors, Goodreads ratings can make or break a book. (shouldn't be this way, but algorithms gonna algorithm). I will still give a bad book a bad rating, but if I'm on the fence about a book, I will go the higher rating. If it's a big book, like a Sanderson or GRRM, they don't need my rating, I can be harsh. And since no one cares about how I rate my books, I don't have to worry about consistency. I can rate a Sanderson 4 stars even though it is light years better than some random self published LITRPG book that I read that I also gave 4 stars to.
This is an awesome explanation of exactly how I feel regarding rating books. That’s awesome. I could’ve never put that into words in such a good way
Yea I think half stars are what help me still give books good ratings on goodreads while also accurately representing the spread in my own internal spreadsheet.
When i finish a book, i usually wait a day or two and than rate it based on my feeling. I've had a bit of time to think about it so the first giant wave of emotions is over, but i still feel enough and remember enough. Than i'm happy with my rating and it usually stays that way. if my feelings do change over time, i alter my rating if it goes up, but if it goes down, i can't be bothered.
I always like to log that I finished right away on storygraph but by the time I transfer that data to a wrap up or goodreads I have had more time to think and adjust if need be but even then its only normally a half star difference
I love love love this video and the points that you made!! You’re so good at communicating how your subjective ratings work for you
Thank you 💜
I use quarter stars, and I like it because it adds a little more flexibility to my ratings since I fluctuate a lot. I’m the type of mood reader that changes ratings as I read more books throughout the year so I find myself comparing values between reads to see where I stand and if certain reads hold up as time passes. Loved this video!
This was great, I love hearing people’s reasoning behind ratings.
I give out 1 star ratings pretty freely - if I can’t think of a single thing I liked about the book, it gets a 1. I’ve actually given a few books a 1.5 this year. My criteria for that is if I mostly disliked it but there was one small thing I liked. Two stars is for books I mostly disliked but there were a few things I liked. Other than that, my rating scale is pretty similar to yours.
I think even by your criteria I have not recently read any books that I would give 1 star, typically if I am not having a good time I am more likely to stop reading and even if I finish it I can normally think of a few ok things to give it 2 stars.
@@LiteratureScienceAlliance yeah… I need to DNF more often lol.
This was interesting to hear, thanks! Even though I don't rate books with numerical units, your ideas about wanting to read vs actually enjoying vs the author's intent and execution made a lot of sense to me. They made me think again why I like what I like.
Yea its a weird amalgamation of factors but my brain sorts it out somehow lol
I found your use of consumability - especially in the 3 vs 3.5 star range. Usually the way I rate my books is I enter the number I feel in the spreadsheet and then go about my day. Then, I look at it when I put my next book and think whether or not it deserves that number.
That's a good system, my poor spreadsheet has been neglected....
Fun hearing your thoughts on this topic! I no longer rate books, but I say do it if it’s fun for you, and it seems like it is! Maybe I’m slow to things, but thinking of books as “projects” is a fairly new concept to me. I’ve heard you and a few other BookTubers describe books that way, and I think that’s really interesting! ✨
Oh for sure, if rating books stressed me out I would just stop but its something that I like doing and I feel I am self consistent enough, ironically when I tried to use a spreadsheet system was the only time I got super stressed about it. I don't like dividing books into parts to rate them, just like judging the whole lol
⭐️ I rate books on GR as an aide-memoir to my future self! It’s super useful to me years down the road because I’ve been on GR since 2009.
Yea its nice having all that data to look back on
I listen to the words mostly. 🥰
I do a grading system on a 100% scale and have five things that figure into it.
Nice! The grading system is a fun one I have seen around
I rarely give 1.5 ratings either! I normally figure that if I disliked it that much it might as well be a 1. 2.5 is a little more common for me, although 2 stars normally = I was bored, so I'm less likely to have finished it.
People laugh at me for not giving out many 5* but I like having my absolute favourites separate from the greats 🤣
I already have adjusted your scale in my head lol if you give something a 4 I assume its a 5 😂
I'm perpetually behind in actually rating/reviewing things on Goodreads too... 😅 I always round down, though, since I know I definitely rate higher than average. I rate purely on engagement, so 5 stars for me just means I was thoroughly immersed the whole read and nothing brought me out of it - no bearing on lasting impressions, etc, just it was perfect as far as my desire to be fully in the world of the book for the whole read.
I think by that standard it would be hard for me to give anything 5 but I think my brain just finds a hard time being completely immersed, its part of why my commute really helped me get back into reading cause it was 2 30-40 minute dedicated reading sessions a day where nothing else distracted me.
⭐️ I have categories that I rate each book in on a scale from 1 to 5--prose/writing, plot/story, characters, thematic dialogue, and overall enjoyment--then average those out and round (usually down) the result to half stars for StoryGraph and whole stars for GoodReads.
I do this this too! The common ones across all of my reads are style/writing and themes. With nonfiction I include a knowledge/perspective category. Graphic novels obviously have art as a category. And then for fiction I add in characters and plot, and world-building if it’s speculative fiction.
I tried to do something like this and it just did not work for me, which is odd since I am generally a very analytical person. But also sometimes I feel like the categories are weighted differently from book to book? Like one book might have had only ok plot but the characters were out of this world so I didn't care so the 5 star character weight internally blows away the 2-3 star plot. Idk I just struggle with that system and that was part of how I got stressed with rating temporarily.
Always interesting to hear how other people approach rating their books! I feel like we have a very similar rating system though, and my star ratings mean the same as yours do (if that makes sense, lol).
When I first got back into reading, I gave almost everything 5 stars because I wasn't familiar with any tropes etc., so everything felt exciting and new to me. Now I am very stingy with my 5 star ratings and only give them out when I feel like a book will stick with me and has the potential to become a new favourite.
Anyway, this was a super fun video!! 🥰
4.5 stars help me feel like I can be stingy with 5s without feeling like I am no longer loving things that I am reading, not sure if that makes sense at all but I was so happy when I added half stars into my rating!
@@LiteratureScienceAlliance That makes total sense, I feel the same 😛
Thanks for sharing this. I always struggle with rating books so this was very helpful! 🌟
Glad it was helpful!
⭐️ Thank you for sharing. It’s always interesting to learn how other people rate their reads
You’re welcome 😊
⭐️ these are some of my favorite types of videos to watch! I’d be interested to know how a change in genre or age (MG, YA, adult) might change how you rate a book.
for me I have a hard time picking up YA bc I’ll want it to have the qualities of adult fic and my initial instinct is to rate it lower. but i also know that it’s not the intention of the book do be like adult fic. idk if that makes sense or not!
Genre or target audience does not normally affect how I rate although of course some genres, age target, length of books are harder for me to give 5 stars just cause of my personal taste since my system is so subjective. I do take into account the project of the work which includes intended audience etc. But genre and age are more a factor for what books I pick up and less how I end up rating them after reading.
Interesting video about ur rating if books... happy reading to you! 🎬📝
Thanks! 😊
I find the hardest thing about rating is the variety of genres. This probelm goes for movies and TV as well. Trying to compare serious historical fiction with silly camp farce is very hard.
There is a really long list of subjective things that goes into rating. They are good for snapshot, and helpful if you know the person, but as you said, nothing compare to words.
I think I naturally adjust my expectations between genres and just some genres are less likely to be 5 star experiences for me and that's ok.
wow our rating systems are very similar hahaha i'm even reluctant like you to rate books 1 star except for really terrible classics. i don't usually bother with half stars but sometimes they're necessary. also i'm fairly liberal with my 5 stars. if i enjoyed reading and don't have much or anything bad to say about then it's a 5 star in my book
That's how I use to be but then I wanted an easy way to separate my favorites from the rest. And 4.5 I can always round up on goodreads to help the book but in my own records I know that its not the same as my true 5 stars!
I have similar standards for 1 stars - one of the very few I've rated that had a very negative portrayal of an autistic coded character.
I always have to remember when some people don't use that standard and mentally adjust "ok so that 1 is more like a 2 on my scale" which is not great but helps a little when someone gives of a favorite of mine 1 star 😆
I'd my rating system is quite simple and it's based mostly on enjoyment 🤔
⭐⭐ - the book _actively_ made me angry (you know that moment when you go "Oh, _hell_ no" is when a book is getting 2⭐ from me 😅)
⭐⭐⭐ - ok, but didn't touch me in any significant way
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - great (I don't give books 5⭐ on first read, except for a very few rare exceptions)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - only for rereads that I highly enjoy, and reread in general rises my rating of a book because it means that I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to pick it up again (the only other way for me to give something 5⭐ would be for it to change my life, my perception of the world in some significant way - great examples would be 1984 or Brave New World. Have I enjoyed these stories? I rated both of them 5⭐ even though I didn't enjoy my time with them and don't really plan on rereading them).
That's interesting that 5 stars are for re-reads for you! Don't think I have met many people where that is their standard
@@LiteratureScienceAlliance Yeah, I don't think that I have met anyone else either who uses this system XD But considering that my rating is based on my enjoyment lvl, this system just makes sense in my head 😁
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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for this video hehe
You are the best! 😉
What’s your StoryGraph name? I’d like to follow you. Thanks!
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