To round up, or not to round up
11 February 2015 
Okay, this will be short and to the point. I’m in a quandary (this isn’t a unique feeling so don’t be too concerned). I don’t rate books on my blog because I hope the tone will either come across as super positive/excited, okay, or not so much, and I’ve already had a discussion about this in a previous post and don’t wish to revisit – however, when I review on Goodreads, Netgalley, etc, then a rating system is used (as you all know!) – and sometimes I want to give a half star which simply isn’t possible. That half star makes a big difference in my humble opinion – so, to the point, do I round up or round down. Either way feels a little bit unfair!
(A 10 point/star rating would be so much easier if anybody with ‘the power’ is listening – come on, with great power, etc, etc,).
Anyway – do you round up or round down???
Books and travelling with Lynn 
I always round up. I figure if I were to give a book a 7, for example, that it is more reflective of my feelings of the book to give it a 4-star rating on Amazon and Goodreads than to give it a 3.
I think I agree with you to be honest – I’ve just reviewed on Goodreads for a 3.5 but gave it 4 stars. Maybe it depends on how positive or negative you’re feeling so a really good 3.5 – round up but one where you’re not so sure…
I think that is a factor. I imagine if I was hovering around a 6.5 for a novel on a 10 point scale I would feel it would be fair to round down if I felt rounding up didn’t reflect some of the problems I had with a book.
It’s a bugger of a problem. It makes me sit there thinking about it going to and fro trying to feel fair – quite ridiculous really!
Lynn D
It depends. I almost *always* round up for debut authors. Sometimes I will decide to round up or down based on what the average rating for the book is (if they are at 3.2 and I think a 3.5, I’ll round up). If it is a book that I rated the other books higher by a point or so, I may round down. I dunno.
I dunno either! At the moment I definitely tend to err on the side of rounding up! It’s not really a bad thing at the end of the day though is it!
Lynn 😀
I don’t like a system, like Goodreads, where it tallies everything and will present fractions of stars for an overall book’s rating but won’t let individual reviewers actually rate that way. I don’t mind a 5 star system if I have the control to give something a half point or deduct a half point as I see fit.
I know – I hate that I can see that a book is 4.5 or 4.6 or whatever connotation and yet I can’t use half points!! It would be so much simpler if they just went to 10 points – it’s really a no brainer!
I know exactly what you mean! That is why I don’t give 1/2 stars, regardless! So I guess my answer is, I round down.
Well, at least that’s clean and consistent. I think i’m just a raging softie really! That half a point makes me feel more generous. You know, the thing is, I think I take the author’s feelings into consideration – really I should leave that to one side – not so that I can be a so-and-so or anything but really it’s not part of the book review is it! I just can’t help it – SOFT!
Not to be totally unhelpful here, but it depends on the book. Some books leave me with enough good will that I will round up while others I may round down after having some time to think about it.
Not unhelpful at all actually! The goodwill factor definitely plays a large part I think.
Lynn 😀
Most of what I read, I enjoy. So, I round up. However, if a book had major issues (it’s obvious an editor wasn’t involved, blatant racism, sexism, homophobia that isn’t story-based, etc.) then I am already giving the book a low rating (2/5 stars or less) and then I don’t feel bad about rounding down.
Agreed – there are only a few books that I genuinely haven’t liked over the past few years – mainly because of good recommendations and also the fact that I don’t read a book through if I’m not enjoying it – it just makes me too grumpy and I would give an absolutely awful review!
Lynn 😀
I dont use that there Netgalley machine. But when I when I first started blogging I used to rate out of ten until recently. Now I dont rate. I feel that I should be able to convey my thoughts without. I hope anyway. Probably just end up confusing people. Readers will be up all night thinking, “BUT I DONT KNOW IF ROMEO LIKED IT OR NOT. HE SAID COSMIC BUT IS THAT A GOOD OR BAD THING AS SPACE IS VAST AND INFINITE AND EMPTY. IM SO.CONFUSED.”
Haha, I feel the same these days – I was actually too inconsistent with my rating – but for Goodreads you have to rate!! I hope that my positivity comes over in the review! I hope!!
Lynn 😀
Depends! Even when I rate something using half stars, in my heart I know I lean a certain direction. If it’s a thoroughly enjoyable 3.5 I’ll round up to 4 on Goodreads, Netgalley etc. If I think it barely managed to earn the 3.5 then I’ll rate it a 3.
This reminds me of how badly I wish Goodreads had half ratings. Grrr! This is why I also like to catalog my shelf at LibraryThing. They do half stars and I use it to remember more specifically what I gave each book.
I must look into this ‘librarything’ of which you speak! Sounds like a good idea.
I think the feeling really happy so round up and feeling really mad round down works really!
Lynn 😀
I usually round up, but not always, especially for very high or low ratings. I guess that means I don’t really have a system? I should check out your post on why you don’t usually rate on your blog though – I used to do that, but I felt like I was too negative towards books I loved and therefore spent ages obsessing and picking over, and I don’t think that came across very well.
I must admit that I think most people look for ratings – and I got a lot of comments on that post that said the same thing. It makes it easier to skim if you’re in a rush and you still know if someone liked the book or not. I do like it. However, I’m useless at rating. Really useless.
Lynn 😀
I stopped using half stars but I always rounded down when I did. I guess I would rather not inflate my scores? Plus I don’t think 3 or 4 stars are a bad thing.
I don’t think 4 is a bad score but I would never read a book on a 3 star recommendation – I just have to admit it. More often than not I only want your 4.5/5 stars but 3 is a definite no-go – unless it’s a book that I really wanted to read already.
Lynn 😀
I have noticed that. I give 3 stars to something I kinda liked and everyone goes, oh no, not for me then.
When I used to be a gamer the game magazines had the same issue. People wrote off games unless they got 90%.
I guess the thing is there are so many books and so little time that we all want to read the ‘best’ ones. Which really means 4 and 5 star reads. Sounds harsh but I think it’s probably true in a lot of cases.
Lynn 😀
It depends on your rating scheme, which in my case how much I enjoyed the book. I just think about the two closest ratings and which I think it falls closer to, and go with that. So in some cases I round up, most of the time, down.
I don’t have a system – which is probably the problem. My rating system is simply how I felt emotion-wise at the time!
I’m useless at rating though – I looked back at reviews where I rated and with some I just thought ‘what was I thinking?’
Lynn 😀
That’s pretty much what I do! Often as not I find that I rarely change ratings, though.
It depends why it gets a half rating – is it better than average or less than great?
A 3 is an “average” book I like, while 4 is a book that I really like – something special about it. If I felt book was average, but had a little something extra, it give 3.5 rounded to a 3. Same if I found book I really liked, but still one thing I didn’t think was great, it gets a 3.5 rounded to a 4.
Maybe a better way to look at it is with letter grades? There is no exact middle between a B and C. There is a C+ and B-. While they are both between, each is slightly leaning more towards one.
I like your thinking – especially with the B and C theory! I’m still useless at rating but it might help me with the half stars on Goodreads.
Thanks
Lynn 😀
It depends! I sometimes round up and I sometimes round down. I usually base it off of how positive or negative my review sounds to me and the general feel of it I have. If it was just an OK book then I round down – if I really enjoyed it despite the whatever reasons for giving it a half start then I round up.
but more and more I’ve been rounding down (probably because this year I’m a bit harder to please? I already noticed I have way more 3 stars this year on my goodreads because so many books have been ending up about a 3 or 3.5 for me. I know technically in mathematics you would round up in the case of a 3.5 but hey the scale of 1-5 stars is not very well balanced in my opinion it just doesn’t adequately reflect how you can feel. I think many people consider 3 to be a bad read but I really don’t. I consider it Ok to Good. There are many 3 star reads that I won’t continue on with the series and then many other then also get a 3 that I will continue on with in a series. Rating just sucks but unfortunately its what most normal readers look at when they go to check out a book.
I have a hard time with ratings in general because there are a lot of books that I enjoy that are objectively bad/trashy, so I never know how to rate when comparing to books that have more literary merit. I tend to rate most books that I enjoy with a 4, if I really loved it with a 5, if it was okay, then a 3, and 1-2 if I really wasn’t a fan.
What a really excellent point and one that I hadn’t even thought about but how do you rate the trashy pulp compared to your more literary statuesque! I guess you just go off how much you enjoyed them. I’m too inconsistent with rating which is why I personally stopped but then I do enjoy other’s ratings!
Lynn 😀