My blog consists mainly of book reviews with a spattering of shorter posts usually made up of lists which aim to highlight books that I really like and the occasional movie review or just plain rant about life in general or some such other random post like holiday summaries.

One of my big questions is the whole ‘rating’ issue.

Basically, I find it difficult to rate a book.  When I first started blogging I would rate a book using the system A through to E which is clearly the same as the 1-5 star rating.  Then, after some time I looked back at my reviews and realised there was no sound basis for the ratings I was giving a book!  More than anything the ratings were probably based on my emotions or feelings at the time.  I also admit that I would look at my ratings and think how could I have rated book ‘x’ over book ‘y’!  So, I basically disbanded the rating system on my blog because I obviously wasn’t terribly good at it!  I decided that the tone of my review should be enough.  I review a book – If I don’t like it I will probably say something along the lines of ‘this wasn’t for me’ if it’s a book I adore I will rave – A LOT!  Or, maybe, I’ll have quite a few criticisms.  However, the rub here is that I really enjoy reading a review that has a rating system!  I hope that doesn’t make me a hypocrite! – And, I admit, that a rating system is less time consuming – you can just cut to the chase after all – and that’s the other problem with not giving a rating.  So, for example, if I just give a fairly mediocre review of a book – in other words there are not words like ‘love’, ‘adore’, ‘you must read this’, ‘why are you still here?  Go and get this book’, etc, scattered profusely throughout, but just give a brief summary saying: ‘blah happens’, blah are the characters’, etc, – then I will get comments saying ‘I really want to read this’.  Now, should I then feel bad about this?  Am I not being obvious enough?  People may then go and read this book even though I personally only found it mediocre.  I outlined the book and give my criticisms but because I didn’t give a star rating people haven’t maybe read between the lines?  Should they even need to read between the lines?  This makes me feel unnecessarily guilty to be honest!  Although on the other side of the coin if I’m giving a summary of a book without saying that “i loved it’ and somebody still wants to read it – then surely that’s their choice?

The other problem for me with ratings is this.  If I see a rating for a book that is a ‘3’ or a ‘C’ or under – then I’ll probably not want to read it – particularly if it’s from a blogger that I trust the opinion of.  Now, I don’t mean that critically, and I certainly don’t want to put pressure on other people or intend to make them feel bad about how they rate a book!, But I read a lot of books and yetI still have big stacks of books that I want to read -all competing for time.  If I see a few mediocre readings then basically I don’t want to spend my time reading that book – it’s simple really, time is precious!  It kind of makes me feel like anything below a 4 is a ‘don’t read’!  Is that wrong – no, not really, we all go on Goodreads and Amazon, for example, and if a book is consistently getting low star reviews then we basically trust those ratings. That could be wrong.  I could miss a lot of good books that way.  Even with the bloggers that I’ve been following ‘forever’ and we usually strongly agree – we don’t always like the same books after all.  So, if I just discount 3* reviews I could be missing something really good for me.  To be fair, if it’s a book I’m determined to read – then I’m still going to read it!  But, a low star rating can be off putting nonetheless.

Perhaps I should try rating again?  Although I’m not sure that I’m totally confident with my ability to do so and so probably won’t – part of me thinks it would be easier with a 1-10 review system.  Let’s face it, how often do you find yourself wanting to give a half star or half point which with ten points you could do?

It’s tricky!

Plus, do you find yourself strangely intrigued by the negative reviews?  I almost like to read the negative reviews of a book I’ve enjoyed – just so that I can counter argue why I like them or feel outraged!!  But, I have noticed, although maybe wrongly, that the particularly snarky reviews and low scorers are very popular!  And, I can say from experience, that one of the few times that I gave a, for me, fairly low and sarcastic review of a book it seemed to attract more attention than otherwise!  Basically, it’s not really my style though.

So, to rate, or, not to rate!  That is the question???