This week begins my blog tour, but Katie will be picking up the slack with two reviews, and I have a guest post scheduled for Thursday. Plus, I’ll leave little posts indicating where you might find my blog tour posts. There will be giveaways!
I made some subtle changes around here. I have a new Buzz page, which I’ll keep current with reviews, and a page that shows you where you can download various ereaders for you computer or phone. I also cleaned up the widgets on this page, and I must say it loads much faster. I loved the boxes of faces, but they made this page load way too slow. The Google FriendConnect widget seems pretty speedy, so it remained.
I have been toying with the idea of adding stars to my reviews. I have discovered their worth from an author’s standpoint, but this is a blog for readers, not authors, so I’m still undecided. Here’s my tentative system, which starts out fairly standard:
***** Excellent
**** Very good
*** Good
** Fair
* At least I finished it.
I will not mention books I did not finish, since in such cases I don’t think I’d be a good reviewer.
Additionally, I’d have an optional rating, “Keeper,” which I would apply to any book that I love enough to keep. There are many books where I would give it a high number of stars to acknowledge the excellence of the writing, but really was not for me. This system allows me to give 4 or 5 stars to such books. I can also think of other novels that maybe were not so masterfully executed, but which I loved anyway. This way, I could give such books 3 or so stars, but label it a keeper.
What do you think? Stars or no stars? Indicate your choice below!
I hate to be unhelpful, but I don’t know if stars would help me choose which books to check out or not. {Smile}
However, the keeper rating sounds like an interesting idea. I think we often like the same books, and I know you have limited space for all the books you get. So knowing that you want to keep a book is significant to me. {Smile}
Anne Elizabetrh Baldwin
I have a strange viewpoint on the stars issue. When I look up a book on BN.com, I like to see what the average rating is, to give me an idea of the general consensus on a book’s worth. On review sites like this, stars are less important to me. A reviewer may give a book only one or two stars, but when I’m reading a quality review, it’s the text itself that decides for me whether or not to try the book. I mean, I’ve purchased books based on bad reviews and loved them. Stars aren’t the deciding factor. But having that data to add to other reviewers’ ratings could be a useful thing.
You’re right, Katie. I like to see the average rating and the point-spread on Amazon. However, in a single review, what’s said about the book is more important than any rating attached. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Interestingly, when I go to Amazon, I’m looking for reasons not to read the book. I disregard the 5 star reviews and check out the 2 and 3 stars. I also tend to disregard the 1 star reviews.
However, if it were a reviewer I trusted, a 5 star review would have a great impact on me.
If I was looking at individual reviews, I might be like you. I have enough red-flag issues, I’d like some warning if one crops up in a story. I know how easy it is to gloos over them if you liked the story pretty well. {Smile}
However, so far I’m looking at the ratings in aggregate. That’s why the point-spread matters. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin