Comments on: Tuesday Thingers: How Important are Ratings?

By: sheistoofondofbooks

sheistoofondofbooks — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:39:14 +0000

3m – I think the compiled ratings (on a site like Amazon or LibraryThing) have more value than an individual rating on my blog. I avoid spoilers, but I totally see your point … one careless reviewer and you may as well not read the book!

Wendi – we’re just getting back from vacation, so I’m missing Tuesday Thingers this week … will hop around the blogosphere and check them out.

Lenore – LOL! No, that was my creative example. Maybe I’ll write it one day

By: Lenore

Lenore — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:51:33 +0000

Is My Gym Teacher is a Vampire a real book? Sounds hilar!

By: Wendi B. ~ Wendi's Book Corner

Wendi B. ~ Wendi's Book Corner — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:49:37 +0000

Oh – I LOVE what you said about rantings! It is so true. I pay a lot more attention to a review than I do to a rating. After all, I may like a book for the same reason you did, or I may be interested in reading it because of something you didn’t like.

Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I’ve got the post up for this week. ~ Wendi

By: 3m

3m — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:21:31 +0000

I like ratings because I don’t always want to read the review if I haven’t read the book. I always look at the book rating if there is one, though.

By: sheistoofondofbooks

sheistoofondofbooks — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:00:45 +0000

Meghan – that’s true, LibraryThing is a self-selected group of readers, isn’t it?!

Kathy – every voice counts

Dorte – I do consider the source, as well.

sherry – I’ll check out the daily review at Powell’s, that sounds interesting. I’ve never posted a review at Amazon, and have said “no” (politely) to authors who have asked me to.

caite – that is (more than) a bit of a disconnect! Actions speak louder than words; words speak louder than star ratings …

Jenners – yes! The larger the pool of answers, the more accurate the average answer will be. But, that still doesn’t tell us WHY someone rated a book 1-star (or 5, or … whatever)

Amber – my LT ratings are really just those words that Netflix pops up when your cursor hovers over a star rating. They’re easy for me to remember, but not very telling.

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:46:13 +0000

Like you, I don’t use ratings in my book reviews. I do give stars on LibraryThing. The stars translate to what you have above. A lot of books get somewhere between 2 and 4 stars.

By: Jenners

Jenners — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:14:30 +0000

I really like this question and reading the different answers. I agree with you for the most part … but I have seen a rating system on someone’s blog that was really well thought out. I wish I could find it again. Though I do think the written summary is the best way to tell what someone thinks … and I like how you say that “I might not like this but you might like it if you like this …”

I do think that the “star” ratings are most effective when a lot of people all do them and you can get a pretty good idea of the general consensus. One person saying a book is 5 stars doesn’t mean as much as 100 people saying it.

Great post!

By: Yvonne

Yvonne — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:57:17 +0000

I don’t use the rating system on my blog either, but I will click on the stars on Shelfari and LT.

By: caite

caite — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:46:54 +0000

I agree that I am finding Amazon’s reviews and rating less and less useful. First of all because a person’s rating will often disagree with what they write. So which am I to believe? I assume what they write…which makes all the stars useless.

By: sherry

sherry — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:24:33 +0000

I like the rating system at GoodReads. It’s helpful & if it’s put together with some comments that’s really helpful.

The reviews at Powells are helpful too. You can sign up for daily reviews. One from the pros and one from regular readers.

Amazon sucks.