Finished dull book and now I can't decide what to read next - too many books not enough time

For me 1 star means I hated it so much I couldn't even finish it.

2 stars means I finished it, but I hated it, and I wish I hadn't wasted my time finishing it.

3 is just ok.

4 is good, and I might reread it someday.

5 is I love it and would really like to reread it someday.

I know, bombus, I I'll never get through my to read list!

jacobgrey wrote:This person says: "While I enjoyed the books storyline with its rather new genre and a very interesting twist at the end, the author seems to need a little more practice in writing more interestinly. A lot phrases were just so useless as they were plainly stating the obvious. No need for that."

hmmmm... for me, it looks like just one disadvantage and the person clearly says what they liked. seems to fit into your rating too: great but not quite perfect. I don't know if there was more in the review, of course.

the only kind of reviews that annoys me is when the reviewer says they hated or loved the book but don't elaborate. though even here, annoy is a strong word. I just skip them because they are unhelpful. if I check out reviews at all, it's not for an opinion, it's to see if there are any disappointments hidden behind a vague synopsis.

for example, a synopsis is intriguing but the setting implies abuse: I want the reviews to tell me if it's there. or a synopsis is generally interesting but I'm not sure: I want the reviews to tell me something great about the book that would convince me it's worth reading, a dynamic protagonist, clever plot twists, etc.

so a review should feed me some information to help me make up my mind about adding the book to the to-read list. which is already probably longer than is realistic for my lifetime.

love/hate reviews without argumentation don't help with that at all. it's fine for people to state their feelings but I just skip those because I can't benefit from them. basically in the same way that I can't benefit from the number of stars unless I know the reviewer's criteria.

funnily, I find "I liked it" without argumentation completely fine. maybe because you can like something and not know why but when you love or hate something there must be a reason? idk they're still not helpful to me, so there shouldn't be any difference. yet somehow there is... weird XD


@bombus: write some titles on pieces of paper, put them in a jar, and draw one without looking ;)


@Sanssouci: for me, it's 5 stars if everything's perfect or with minor drawbacks (4,5), one star off is the characters act out-of-character (half a star if it's just a few times or just a side character), one star off if the worldbuilding is lacking (half a star if it's not explained/shown enough), one star off if the plot is artificial (half a star if it's just one tiny case of deus-ex-machina/godmodding that only affects a subplot in a minor way). and then I let myself have one star for if I liked or disliked the book for my personal reasons, different from the other three.

so if I don't like the protagonist because of their personality, I won't take a "characters" star off. but I will if they don't act according to their personality and the author doesn't give a good reason for this deviation. however, I may take my "personal" star off because I didn't like the protagonist, if this really really really affected my perception of the story, so much that the author couldn't achieve what they set out for with me.

this way, if the characterization, worldbuilding, and the plot were flawless, but I didn't enjoy the book because it's not a story I care for or because of some social issues, whatever, the book will lose at max one star. I'm probably just not the target audience for it! why drop the rating and make it less discoverable for those who are its target audience?

on the other hand, if everything above was wrong but I somehow did still enjoy the characters because they were dynamic... or the ideas... or the language was beautiful... or the author does a great job at imagery or dialogue... if I liked something strongly about the book, even though objectively it's a weak book, it still has a chance at 2 stars because I'm a biased human it'll only get 1 star if I couldn't find anything to like about it + the author failed at characters, plot, AND world.

(I'm not saying, it's the right way to do it, though. there's no wrong way, imo)


@WishingMoon: yay! small steps matter

Oh, gosh, I don't need to know how far I am through books right now. At this rate, it would be like, "You're 2% done." Then a week later, "You're 2.5% done," lol! My partner has a doctor's appointment tomorrow though, so I might get a little reading done while we wait.

Me too! We're hopefully going to find out whether or not he has lupus.