Play Book Tag discussion

Recently, we were amused that there was a tag on Goodreads entitled "1 star" and that made me wonder how many 1 star reads you have on your shelf?

So out of 687 books I've tracked as "read", I have six one star reads.

Are others similar? I would have expected it to be about 10% of books read, but not even close.

I only have four out of 529 books, BUT I have 52 abandoned books. I don’t rate abandoned titles as I don’t think it is fair. Also, one of my one star ratings is Pumkpin Farmer. 😜

Susie wrote: "I only have four out of 529 books, BUT I have 52 abandoned books. I don’t rate abandoned titles as I don’t think it is fair. Also, one of my one star ratings is Pumkpin Farmer. 😜"

Ha ha, I'm going to have to look that up now. I presume it is a children's title?

I see how you would feel it is unfair to rate an abandoned title. I don't really DNF, so I didn't have that issue. So if you remove the 52 abandoned books, then you would be at roughly 1% of your titles as 1 star. Almost identical to mine. Curious to see if anyone has significantly more . . .other than Kimberly Ann who I know is a tough grader!

I only have 2, and I have 11 2 star out of 378-but I am that discerning reading, who will not finish a book if I am not enjoying it.....

Only one (partly because I tend to DNF if I'm confident it's heading in that direction, and I don't rate my DNFs; and partly because there are so many obviously good books that friends steer me to that I don't end up with rubbish). I have a few 2 stars, some of which are a little on the generous side.

I actually have 5, my most recent was in 2009, The Shack. It was just not my cup of tea. Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind also merited a one star rating . I finished them but quit the series. Such trash.

I have 4 out of 181. Two of those are books I didn't not finish. At the time I read them and rated I didn't understand tags and all the different ways to rate books. So I would have not rated them and put under some kind of not finished category and may some day time to re-eval now that I'm getting to know all the lingo.

I am pleasantly surprised that I only have 10 out of 1916 books. I, too, do not finish what I don't enjoy. I guess I don't rate quite as harshly as I had thought.

BnB, oh how I loved that trash when I was a wee teen! I think I devoured the entire series in a week!

Anita, Pumpki n Farme rwas self published by this guy who aggressively tries to harass people into reading his book. If you block him he returns as pum .pkin farm .er and so it goes. He merited a one star rating based on his behaviour!

Apologies for the strange typing. I think said farmer has been so heavily restricted that I can’t even type his name. It won’t let me post it!

69, but this includes some from back in the day when I finished EVERYTHING. Many are ones I finished for reading challenges or games where I was being competitive--so you can see why I'm having a "rebellious" year and only reading things I want to. I might read a few 2 star ones, but on 1 star ones AT ALL. This is out of over 1600 books, but many aren't rated on there for one reason or another.

Susie wrote: "BnB, oh how I loved that trash when I was a wee teen! I think I devoured the entire series in a week!

Anita, Pumpki n Farme rwas self published by this guy who aggressively tries to harass people..."

My mother who was extremely strait laced gave them to me. I kept reading them thinking that they must get better because my mother read them, I continued on to the second with the same thinking. I finally decided that my mom was quite capable of reading trash, but I had better things to read.

I only have 1/375! It is The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.

I think this is mainly because if I start a book, and never get to 50 pages in or abandon it early on- I don't even put add the book to my GR account. Only books that get fully finished get reviews and stars from me.

Also, I feel VERY GUILTY giving bad star ratings, and probably give authors too much benefit of the doubt.

I do have quite a few 2-stars. Most notable for me would be The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which seems to always have love it or hate it reviews.

Joi wrote: "I only have 1/375! It is The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.

I think this is mainly because if I start a book, and never get to 50 pages in or abandon it early on- I don't even put add t..."

I don't feel great about giving authors a bad rating, but if a book is popular and well liked I don't feel badly about it at all since they aren't going to lose any popularity over my dislike.

Just one.

Son by Lois Lowry.

I will preach endlessly about how awful that book is, made all the more disappointing by how good The Giver was. How a Newbery winner sunk so low is a mystery to me.

I too must confess to being a DNFer. I don't think there are too many things worse than forcing myself to read a book I'm not enjoying. I have to admit that this past year has been difficult as I have been grieving the loss of my son. Recently though I enjoyed as well as finished two books I didn't have to force myself to read. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Boy I missed that feeling.

I have 5 that I truly rated one star. A lot of the crossover from Shelfari must have been wonky, because there are some one star ratings of books I haven’t read, and some that I liked. Weird.

I can say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Atlas Shrugged is certainly a one star for me. Because of that book, I gave myself permission to DNF. If only I’d done so then...

I have eight one-star ratings out of 818 read books.

I usually finish books that I start; however, I was just considering that I'll sometimes set a book aside with the thought that I'm not in the proper mood for it at the time, but I will try it again another time. Is this a DNF? Or is a DNF a more concrete feeling, like "this book is definitely NOT for me," tossing it over your shoulder, and never looking back?

And I noticed the same weirdness that must have come from the books transferred over during the migration from Shelfari that Tracy noticed - I corrected several books listed as read that I haven't read yet.

I have a handful of 1 star ratings given to books I've read. I re-looked at the titles and remember my strong negative reaction to each of them. I would rate them the same today.

I have 3 out of 958, which at first seemed low, but when I think more about it, I tend to like what I read and unless it's atrociously written, I'll give it the bump to 2 stars. Now that I've said it, I remember another book I'd rate 1 star, so I'll have 4 soon.

I don't rate books I don't finish but I almost always complete what I start. I'm either tenacious or a glutton for punishment. I keep thinking the book will get better, and often it does.

I've also found Goodreads helps, since I tend to read books recommended by friends and people I follow. I try to find readers with somewhat similar taste in books. This worked really well for me last year.

Also, PBT is one of the best spots to find books I will probably like!

Out of 434, I have 6 one star ratings.

Mostly because if it's to the point of being one star, it's too bad for me to finish. LOL!

Out of my 570 'read' books that are rated (I have a lot I have added without a rating, ones I read before starting GR), 29 got 1 star. That's about 5%, higher than I thought!

Only 3 were DNF and I did not rate them (and at least one of those 3will likely eventually be finished. Maybe.) I pretty much finish what I start.

7 out of 1812. I rarely rate really low, and 1 star tends to mean "hate". Some of the 7 may actually be 1.5 stars.

I "don't like" a lot of books. but "hate" is pretty extreme, so I very rarely rate anything 1 star.

I also have lots of books that I didn't rate, as they were read before I started rating/reviewing.

ETA: I should add that I have only ever not finished 1 book, maybe 2 (can't remember if I finished "Frankenstein" or not. I KNOW I didn't finish "The Mill on the Floss". So, that is not why I have so few rated so low.

Joi wrote: "Also, I feel VERY GUILTY giving bad star ratings, and probably give authors too much benefit of the doubt. .."

I also think this is me.

Joy D wrote: "I almost always complete what I start. I'm either tenacious or a glutton for punishment. I keep thinking the book will get better, and often it does...."

This is also me.

Glad to be in good company, LibraryCin!

Kimber wrote: "I have eight one-star ratings out of 818 read books.

I usually finish books that I start; however, I was just considering that I'll sometimes set a book aside with the thought that I'm not in the ..."

I use my DNF shelf for both types of books-I usually know by looking if I plan to go back to it-

I rated 15 out of the 1766 books on my read shelf one star. A lot of the books on there aren't rated because I read them before goodreads or shelfari. Unfortunately two of those one star books were from last year, one for a challenge and one was short and I kept hoping it would get better, it didn't. The one book I was absolutely sure I gave one star to was Love in the Time of Cholera.

Rachel N. wrote: "I rated 15 out of the 1766 books on my read shelf one star. A lot of the books on there aren't rated because I read them before goodreads or shelfari. Unfortunately two of those one star books were..."

Interesting about Love in the Time of Cholera-I have picked it 4-5 times and just cannot keep at it! Good to know it's not just me!

I've got seven things rated with one star. I'm a reader who will typically abandon a book if I'm not feeling it, so my average rating is typically a three or higher. If there's something that kept me reading (spite isn't enough), it's typically a two-star rating if I didn't like it.

I also have no qualms rating popular, commercially published things with one star, but I'm more likely to leave a critical review without a star rating if it's a small press/indie published/debut author.

I have 101 one star books out of 1555 read books. HUH, wow, either I stink at picking out book or I am way to demanding.

I use to make myself read the whole book but got to a point were I stop reading and move on. I have way to many books on my TBR mountain to read something I am hating. Now and then I push through and read the whole book because I want to know how it ends or the subject is interesting enough to overlook the poor writing or lack of structure.

Susie wrote: "BnB, oh how I loved that trash when I was a wee teen! I think I devoured the entire series in a week!

Anita, Pumpki n Farme rwas self published by this guy who aggressively tries to harass people..."

OMG - - that's absolutely horrible! Actually, was the guy's real name, Michael? He left some promos on my reviews as well. Infuriating person.

Kimber wrote: "I have eight one-star ratings out of 818 read books.

I usually finish books that I start; however, I was just considering that I'll sometimes set a book aside with the thought that I'm not in the ..."

I sometimes set a book aside for a period, but I definitely don't consider those to be DNF because I do intend to pick them back up. It's just the wrong timing. When I pick them back up, I usually restart them. It's more like an aborted beginning . . .

Only one book out of 1563 books. I must have been feeling really grumpy or seriously mislead.

A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants

I've rated 16 books with 2 stars.

I know I'm inconsistent with my ratings. But a 2 star rating indicates my extreme displeasure!

I only have 2 with 1 star, the rest were abandoned. I have 20 with 2 stars. I tend to be a little more generous with indie authors, and tougher on established authors when they just call it in.

This one ticked me off the most, mainly because I expected so much better, and I wasted time reading the whole thing:

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. I imagined him as a drunk or blocked writer who had already missed several deadlines. It wasn't finished, and the last half of the book made no sense, but he submitted what he had. He was somewhat famous at that time, so the frustrated editors did what they could and published it anyway, expecting his name alone to sell some books.

510 total books. 9 1 star reads. (1 was a kids book) 3 did not finish books.

66 2 star reads.

I have 8 1 star ratings with 617 books read. 5 of those 1 star ratings were books read by my IRL book group, 3 of the books were written by local authors and were self published.

I have 2031 "read" books on my Goodreads shelves.

Of those, 10 are ZERO stars (might be DNF'd or might have finished but purposely gave NO stars.

99 have a 1-star rating.

Call me a grouch ...

Since I started keeping track in 2007, I have had five 1-star reads and three 1.5s out of 1887 books. I also DNF a lot, so that skews my ratings higher. But not all my books are on GR, though I have listed some books from my youth in GR that are not on my spreadsheet.

My 1-star reads:
Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli (only finished because it was for a challenge in 2016)
Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
Ghouls Gone Wild by Victoria Laurie
Foop! by Chris Genoa
The Power of Two by Patti O'Shea

My 1.5 star reads (can't remember which way to round, up or down)
Shop Till You Drop by Elaine Viets
Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Conspiracies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

I have to be really angry / grumpy at the author for a 1-star rating.
because 2-star is pretty low as well, and 3 means mediocre.

so I too have hardly any 1-stars. Six of them to be exact.

In addition to not finishing books if I truly dislike them, I also probably didn't add to my books in GoodReads hated books that I read prior to joining here.
I tried to remember books that I read and loved in the past, but saw no point in adding books that I couldn't stand

I have no problems with dnfs.

1's extremely awful
2''s pretty awful
3's ok/


but when you get to my 4's so many differnt meanings,

Booknblues wrote: "I have no problems with dnfs.

1's extremely awful
2''s pretty awful
3's ok/


but when you get to my 4's so many differnt meanings,"

My scale is about the same

1386 read

22 - 1 star

but 141 are unrated (due to being read pre-internet)

1%

I can't help but think about this discussion as I read this absolutely delightful cozy mystery, the start of a series by Ellery Adams featuring the Charmed Pie Shoppe -- Pies and Prejudice. I'm enjoying it a great deal!

Yet, when I was posting it to my currently reading shelf, I noticed that it had a whole slew of 1 star reviews (there are 4 star reviews too but 1 star are at the moment showing first). I was puzzled because it has been so enjoyable (I'm about 3/4 way through), so I read them. I'm still puzzled because the fault found that mandates they be rated only 1 star:

-author does not properly depict the South (set in small town Georgia and clearly has no personal knowledge or experience of the South -- author btw lives in North Carolina - last time I looked that was part of the South.
- author clearly knows nothing about pie making because she has Ella Mae making a tomato pie! And it has mayonnaise in it! (perhaps reader should check a tomato pie recipe or two? Even the great southern cookbook author Paula Dean puts mayonnaise in her tomato pies -- and yes, there are such things as tomato pies - they are savory pies. Oh and I'm a pie maker - there is nothing wrong in any way with the pie-making described in the book)
-overly descriptive prose making it too 'purple' -- well yes, it's very atmospheric, making you feel you are in a bit of a fairytale, a 'charmed' almost otherworldly place, which is critical to the story, and that is accomplished by the descriptive prose. Without it, it would not be a 'charmed' pie shoppe or a village where unusual powers seem to exist. Perhaps better to say this isn't your cup of tea, that you prefer something less fanciful?
- heroine is so stupid she never figures out until the end [something I won't mention as it's a spoiler] - um, Denial is not just a river in Egypt...and the heroine has spent much of her adult life living in NYC estranged from her family. In fact, this story reminds me so much of a cozy murder mystery version of Practical Magic - especially the movie version! Or even a bit like Diane Harkness' A Discovery of Witches if it were a cozy mystery - not so much the plot but the relationship of the family of women depicted.

Readers are certainly welcome not to like a book for any number of reasons - but at least get the facts right and perhaps qualify your review to say it's not your cup of tea, which I do when I review fantasy or sci fi which are not genres I typically like and usually dislike for reasons that others adore them.

I guess I feel a sense of responsibility not to just be negative for the sake of writing a snarky review.

In truth, if I had read these 1 star reviews before I started reading it and forming my own opinion, I might not have picked it up and would have missed something charming and fun, exactly what I needed right now.

Now I'm thinking of writing a snarky comment or two in response to the worst offenders of these 1 star reviews....I'm so bad!