I read a lot. Obviously. There needs to be a way to rate books on Amazon, Goodreads, etc for the half star ratings.
I say this because if I find a book better than a 4 star rating, but not deserving of a 5, I rate it 4.5 stars. Do I round up or round down? Rules of mathematics dictate that I round up. But should I really?
There is a big difference between a 3 star book and a 4 star book. A 3.5 star book shouldn't necessarily be classified as a 4 star, but it doesn't necessarily deserve the 3 star rating either.
Do I need to change my criteria in rating a book? True 95% of what I will read will be a 4 star book. I recently finished one book, Rules of Murder, that is actually a 4.5 star rating. I've not posted the review here on my blog, Amazon, or Goodreads yet, because of my dilemma of trying to decide to round down to 4 stars or up to 5.
A recent one I read, The Invention of Sarah Cummings, while it's a solid 3.5 star rating, I didn't have a problem rounding down to 3 stars for it because of how the main character annoyed me to no end.
I find myself more and more frequently rounding DOWN to establish the difference between what I consider a 5 star rating and a 4 star rating. Or the difference between a 3 star and 4 star rating.
There have been a couple I've finished on Goodreads in the past week or so, that while good, aren't truly spectacular. And one of them was even by one of my all time favorite authors!
I really wish that Amazon & Goodreads would institute half ratings. My world would be much happier.
So I ask you, my reader friends, how do you solve this dilemma I find myself in?
A spot for me to share my hopes and dreams. And of course talk about books too.
I totally agree! There are a lot of books that fall in between and I never know what to do on other sites when I leave reviews. I used to round up (because that's math, after all). Then I rounded down (to preserve the integrity of a 5-star review). But that didn't always work because sometimes I didn't want the 3-star rating to bring down the overall rating if I was saying it was really 3.5. Now I just go with my gut (very scientific, ha!) and go higher or lower. It's totally random. I wish a half star option existed. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree too! I have to try to balance it out to make my decision.
ReplyDeleteI would love to have the half-star rating option! I don't usually come up against this problem. When I do, though, it really frustrates me! If it's 4.5, I always just mark it 4 and mention that I would actually give it 4.5 if I could. Other than that, I don't really have a set way of rating "half-star books".
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Just the other week I even found myself giving a book at 3.75 star rating. Recently on my blog I've started just putting the half star rank figure in between my descriptions of what a full star rating would be. (Does that make any sense? )
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brooke, sometimes I go up and sometimes I go down on Amazon or Goodreads. Usually depends on a lot of unscientific and non-mathematical variables.
Usually I do the same thing. I always round down unless it is right on the edge of being better. It really is frustrating to me on Amazon and Goodreads.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only one!