How I Rate Books On Goodreads

Monday, September 19, 2011

... when I rate a book, this is my system...

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f you’re not familiar with Good Reads, click here. It will take you a while to get a handle on all the features, but you may find it useful.

I use the web site because it’s an easy way to build a database of the books from my life—owned, borrowed, swiped and stolen, read, want to read, or, will never read, but pretend I did. In the past I tried creating a database with Excel, but it’s too damn time consuming to collect and enter the data. The web site does all that. A few pecks and clicks and you can add a book to your bookshelf.

Categorize them to your fancy and rate and review. I tend to keep my reviews short and reviewing books is a whole separate topic. But how to rate a book? That’s what I want to know and want to hear from others on.

The site provides a 1 to 5 star rating option, similar to amazon.com, but while you can choose 1 to 5 stars, you can also not rate the book and have no stars. Does that equate to a zero rating or no rating? For me, it means no rating. Comments on that please.

That’s point one. No rating, no stars for books in my shelf means I haven’t read it or I’ve read it but it’s been so long I can’t remember enough to accurately judge it.

Ratings:

1 Star: I probably never finished the book because I hated it that much and if I were Stalin and this were Russia circa 1940s, the author would be on a unheated train heading east until the train reached Port Arthur where he’d be dumped into the sea.

2 Stars: A boring read. The author was over indulgent with excess descriptions or continual narrative summary. A lack of tension and suspense. Silted prose. Faulty logic. Factually wrong.

3 Stars: A worthwhile read. Interesting but with moments of sloppy writing. Room for improvement.

4 Stars: Excellent read. Information or entertaining or both. Great use of language.

5 Stars: All of 4 stars and must read, will read again.

A lot of the books I read will get 3 or 4 stars. Few will get 1 or 5.

For me, a book may deserve a 5 star rating but won’t get it because I have no intention to read again. That’s the key difference between 4 and 5.

Posted 2011/09/19 at 20h48ET in e-books.