SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion

Hi after putting down another book I could not finish I started wondering about how to go about rating it, how do you guys do it? It doesn't seem fair to rate a book just because I could not read it, everybody has different tastes. Do you think there is place for a rating of "unfinished" so that you know that you tried the book but at the same time it doesn't impact on the rating of the author?

I have a shelf titled "did not finish" but I also rate it one star as IMHO it was horrible. All ratings are personal feelings so you shouldn't feel bad giving it 1 star. If you do feel bad giving it such a low rating, you can indicate in your review that you couldn't finish it for whatever reason - boring, bad writing, just not to your taste, etc.

The rating system is an average of all member ratings so I feel that without giving it a rating, you allow all the other ratings to inflate the book to something it is not.

I have a DNF (did not finish) shelf too. But, I think I've left mine unrated b/c I didn't finish it. I keep thinking I'll give them another go at some point. But, honestly, there are too many books I want to read to waste time with those I cannot get into.

I also have a exclusive DNF shelf - exclusive meaning that if I put it there, it's not in my to read shelf or my read shelf.

I usually don't rate them unless I think they are horrible. But I usually write a short review just to remind myself why I couldn't finish the book. A friend of mine loves my DNF reviews because she thinks they are hysterical. ;)

Oh yeah, mine is also an exclusive shelf. I should leave notes or a short review to remind myself like you do. That'd help me decide whether or not it was maybe worth trying again later.

I enjoy your reviews too, DG. :D

Thanks for the feedback guys, I already have a unfinished shelf I suppose what I am trying to achieve is a way of excluding books from my recommendations. I find the books I really don't like (YA books) are swamping my lists. So I suppose this is more of a programming issue?

Actually, Gwen, you can uncheck any shelf from recommendations. If you click on my books, then edit bookshelves, you'll see for rows of checkboxes. The last one is called recs. GR notes, "recs: Check this box if you would like us to try to make recommendations for books in this shelf. If this box is unchecked, we will not make recommendations for this shelf." Uncheck that box for any shelf you don't want them to use when making recs.

Hope that helps. :)

Thanks that's great - this why we need forums (off blondes like me need help too) !

I also have an exclusive "unfinished" shelf. These are actually books that I've started and do plan on finishing at some point but have gotten sidetracked.

Regarding the rating of books I couldn't finish, it depends on how far into the book I got. If I was still at the beginning (less than 100 pages), I simply remove it from my TBR because I didn't get far enough in to make an objective evaluation. If I read more than that I mark it as 1 star and write a review explaining why it is that I couldn't finish.

Gwen wrote: "Thanks that's great - this why we need forums (off blondes like me need help too) !"

:D Yay!

My review system is pretty straightforward:

1 star-abandoned as I just didn't like it
2 star-abandoned as it was ok but not enough to keep me reading
3 star-liked, might or might not read again, might or might not continue with series
4 star-really enjoyed this book, will read again and want to find out what happens next
5 star-loved it

In my reviews I do try to explain why I don't like it or what was 'wrong' with it to give authors some feedback. I just can't justify giving more than 2 stars to something I didn't like or didn't finish.

ETA I have an exclusive shelf called abandoned along with my read, tbr, currently reading and wishlist shelves.