I can’t quite remember why I started using a rating system on my blog, but at some point it happened. I figured, sure it’s a great idea! I can use little pencils to represent stars and then I can show quickly how much that I liked a book.
Sure it worked nicely for a while, until I ran into my first problem. What if I liked a book with five stars, but it wasn’t my favorite? So then I added a sixth star to my system to represent my favorites.
Then my most recent problem arose; I sort of like three stars. I don’t know why, but a lot of my reviews tend to be three stars, and I don’t think that’s fair, because they aren’t all equal. Some of them are more than 3 stars, but not quite 4, and some are not 2 stars, but not really a 3 either.
I’m just sick of the numbers and half stars and the labels in general. I think that if you really want to know if you’re going to like a book read the blurb and several spoiler free reviews. Reviews give you a better sense of the book, because different reviewers like different things in books and that skews their star ratings.
SO, I’m no longer going to rate books with stars, or pencils for that matter. If you want to know what I think, read the review. If you’re lazy, read my conclusion, which usually sums up my thoughts. All my reviews* are spoiler free so I think that read the whole review is better, but that’s just me.
I hope that you all understand where I’m coming from. What do you think about rating systems?
*All posts after April Guaranteed Spoiler Free Unless Otherwise Stated
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