As a reader, I love Goodreads. I especially love seeing the reviews by my friends because that often means I discover books I wouldn’t have read otherwise.
But I am also an author, and I have struggled with putting ratings on books. So for a long time, I only rated my 5 star reads. All other books, many of which I loved, got a review but no rating. The problem with that is, I don’t get an accurate picture of the books I’m reading. I love Goodreads’ “year in review” reports, and putting ratings on only my 5 star reads gives me an average rating for my reading year of … 5 stars. That’s not an honest picture. For instance, my average rating for 2022 so far is actually 4.4 stars, not 5.0 stars.
Recently, I read a blog post about how to write interesting reviews. I don’t know if I will ever take the time to craft longer, more detailed reviews than the ones I currently write, but the post did suggest using one’s own rating system.
Goodreads equates 1 star with “I didn’t like it,” 2 stars with “It was ok,” 3 stars with “I liked it,” 4 stars with “I really liked it,” and 5 stars with “It was amazing.” I understand what the “amazing” one means, but what does “I really liked it” mean? It just isn’t descriptive enough. You might mean something quite different when you say you “really liked” something than what I mean when I say it.
I can’t change what Goodreads means, but I can explain better what I mean. Enter “Robin’s Ratings.” From now on, here’s what those stars mean to me:
Robin’s Ratings
5🌟 = Out of this world. Amazing. Unforgettable. A personal favorite.
4🌟 = Excellent read. Couldn’t put it down. Will recommend to others.
3🌟 = Glad I read it. Engaging/entertaining.
2🌟 = The book was fine but not a favorite. Perhaps a matter of personal taste.
1🌟 = For whatever reason, I didn’t enjoy it and can’t recommend.
I plan to paste the above legend at the end of my reviews wherever I post them so people will understand my personal rating system.
Do you like to review the books you read? Are we Goodreads friends? You can find me on Goodreads here.
~robin
Robin Lee Hatcher
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This is SUCH a good topic, Robin! I’ve done the same as you when I write reviews—for friends, especially: give every book 5 stars (because I really did love them). But when Goodreads came out, I started out using it as my own personal booklist, and I wanted to be able to look back at an honest evaluation of the books I’d read. More importantly, since I tend to binge read an author once I discover a new one, I wanted a way to RANK their books. Even my favorite authors (like you!) have a few books that rise way to the top. If I give an author all 5-star reviews, there’s no way to remember which of his/her books were my TOP favorite.
Your star explanation is excellent. Very similar to mine except I probably wouldn’t say a 2-star book was “fine.” For me, a 2-star read is one I did finish but ultimately felt I wasted my time. I rarely give a 1-star because any book that earns only 1-star, I probably didn’t finish, and it doesn’t seem fair to review a book I didn’t read from cover to cover.
Good points. I may rethink the word “fine” in the 2🌟 explanation. I can think of only two books that I actually rated with a 1🌟. First, I don’t remember reading (or starting to read) very many books I would give such a low rating, and that is because there are so many good books to read. I get recommendations from friends, and I read reviews from people I trust. Thus, books I dislike rarely find their way into my TBR. One of my one star books was an Oprah pick. Big NYT bestselling novel. It was trash!! If there was a zero rating, I would have used it.
I have the same problem with rating and usually only give 5 stars to the ones I really really enjoyed or would recommend even.
I may have to borrow your idea of the reviews, that’s definitely how I would be able to rate books.
Thanks for sharing!
Feel free to borrow. Writing out my own definitions has helped me a lot.
I read 170 books last year most for review. I tend to pick books to read that are from my favorite authors. So I give a lot of 5 stars. The outstanding ones I put on a shelf I created in Goodreads called Beyond 5 stars. My 4 stars are for books I enjoyed very much but were not up to the quality of another book I read by that author. 3 stars are so, so. 2 stars are pretty bad there are issues such as Jody Hedlund’s article about why she doesn’t finish a book, and I don’t think I’ve given a one star. I just DNF it , I have a shelf for that: Book Dump. I only have three books there. The last book I dumped was for a challenge, it was a free one . Guess I have to be more selective about what I get for free.
Thanks for the rating system insight Robin and Deb! Great article! Needless to say, neither of you would be at the bottom of my lists!
One last thought: some stars may be subjective because of favorite genres, too!
Wow! 170 books read and reviewed. {{Envy!!!}} Glad you enjoyed the post. Love the names of your shelves (Beyond 5 Stars and Book Dump).
I’ve been a member of Goodreads since 2014 and love using it to keep track of my books. So far this year I have read 9 books/2,157 pages. I try to review every book I read to give credit to the author. My daughter got me to sign up on Goodreads, and she said she gives a 5 rating if she thinks the book will stick with her long after she reads it. I follow that idea pretty much. I’ve found that I just “know” if the book is a 5 to me. The majority of my ratings are 4 or 5, because I select books that I think I will like. The only time I have given lower than a 3 was when I was in a book club, and a few books members selected were just not my cup of tea. I began keeping a record of all the books I read when I joined this book club in 2004, so I was able to record these books on Goodreads when I joined.
By the way Robin, I used your link to Goodreads, was able to “follow” you, but not able to add you as a friend – received the message that request could not be completed. I like your idea of posting your own rating scale.
Hmm. I know you should have been able to request to friend. Wonder if it was just temporarily down. I did get a friend request this weekend (I approve all of the requests).
Like you, most of my reading is 4 and 5 stars because I usually read books by authors I already love or that come recommended by readers I know and trust.
I “really liked” this blog post. I signed up for Goodreads a few years ago, mainly to read reviews. Last fall I started listing all of the books I own on Goodreads. I’m still learning the system. I must admit, assigning stars had me baffled. I am so glad that you have shared “Robin’s Ratings”, because I really do like it! It truly clarifies the system for me.
I am at the point where I have been considering writing some reviews on Goodreads. (Coincidentally, my current read is “Cross My Heart” and I am really enjoying your beautiful story about Ben and Ashley. Perhaps a review for it in the near future?)
LOL! I laughed when I read your first sentence. Thanks for the smile.
And I’m delighted that you are enjoying CROSS MY HEART.
Great topic! I wish that there was a little more differentiation possible such as 4.1, 4.5 and 4.9. This would help with knowing if the book was barely a four, solidly a four or almost a five.
Most of what I read are 3 or 4 stars with the occasional 2 and 5. Using your description would definitely increase the number of 2 ratings in my reviews. Thanks for surfacing this topic!
Glad it was helpful. I often start a review with my unique rating, i.e. 3.75 stars. It would be nice if Goodreads made that a real change because I read some books that are “almost” a 4 or “almost” a 5. I’d like to have that count in the rating system.
I really enjoyed reading this post! I’ve learned when it comes to star ratings that everyone has their own interpretation of what each star means and it’s best to clarify what it means to you.
Here’s my own personal star rating system. It differs from yours in certain areas, but it’s interesting to note the differences. Thanks for sharing this post!
5 ⭐: I loved it! It was an amazing and excellent read! This book gave me all the feels. I’ll definitely read this book again! Highly recommend!
4 ⭐: I really liked it! A fantastic read! It slightly fell short in some way – either I didn’t like a minor detail or I was left wanting more. However, it doesn’t diminish how much I enjoyed the story. Worth a reread! I would recommend this book!
3 ⭐: I liked it, but there were issues. Things were hit or miss. I didn’t connect to this book as much as I would like. Read again? Maybe, maybe not.
2 ⭐: It was okay. I’m feeling kinda meh about it. When I think of this book’s positives, I’m speaking more objectively in contrast to what I personally liked. Read again? Sorry, but no.
1 ⭐: I didn’t like it at all! Reading this book gave me no joy. I wished I DNF-ed it. Read again? I don’t think so.
Thanks for sharing your list, Chanel. Very helpful.