SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion

Book ratings and reviews are on my mind today. So, I thought I'd ask everyone "How do you rate books?"

Do you find that you tend to rate high (most of your books are 4-5★)?

Do you stick closely to GR's rating system of:
1 = Didn't like it
2 = It was OK
3 = Liked it
4 = Really liked it
5 = It was amazing

Or have you created a system of your own?

I find that I do tend to rate high. I think it's b/c, unless there's something I REALLY don't like about the book, the characters or the storyline, I tend to enjoy every book I read, in some form or the other. They either make me laugh, cry, sigh, dream, wish, care .... that, to me, deserves a 4-5 rating.

I love Rossy's rating system:
5 - The Perfect Dish!
4 - Simply Savory
3 - Satisfying
2 - Not my cup of tea
1 - Check, please!

I agree with that! I have rated very few books 1-2★ and they've been ones that I felt just were "not my cup of tea".

5★ = "Amazing"? That, to me, means the book made a serious impact on my life. But, per my favorite dictionary, Urban dictionary (hehe) the definition of "amazing" is: "Something that is so wonderful, it is hard to find the words to match. Something that makes your heart beat faster or your heart melt. Something that tops everything else, and always crosses your mind." Plenty of heroes have "made my heart melt" and their books have gotten my 5★. :)

I don't rate as high as I used to. I'm a little harder to please. This year there have been a few more 1 & 2 star ratings but I still give out 5 stars too so perhaps it evens itself out.

5 - Hello, afterglow! *sighs happily*
4 - Great. I want more. Where's the next one?
3 - Good-ish. Can take it, or leave it *shrug*
2 - Great writing, crappy ideas, or vice versa
1 - I need a time machine. I demand my wasted time back!

LOL #1 Love it, that is SO true! That's how I felt after reading "Blue Bloods" #1. Augh!

After reading this I went back to see what my ratings where and it surprised me to find that I'm a high rater. Nothing wrong with that I know, but I guess if I like it I like it!!! There's just the one I can't rate that bugs me and that's The Forest of Hands and Teeth couldn't finish this book....will have to try later I guess??? Anyone else have trouble with this book?????

I have a few books that I haven't been able to get into and stopped reading, they now sit on my GR shelf "unfinished" waiting for their 2nd chance. LOL

I haven't read that one, but my husband tried to listen to the audiobook and immediately stopped, said he couldn't stand the narrator. From what I've heard around GR it seems to have gotten mixed reviews. I guess it's one of those you either love it or ya don't. :)

I don't rate high, my average hovers just over 3. I guess I see 3 as the default and a book has to be very good or very bad to get anything else. I do have a lot of 4s, but not very many 5s. Looking at other people's stats does make me wonder if I am grading too harshly. Many of my 1s are unfinished.

Here is my rating system:

10 -- Total Obsession
9 -- Snuck my Kindle in to work to finish...Hooray for big purses!
8 -- Sleep is overrated
7 -- Good excuse to ignore most adult responsibilites
6 -- Read in between gamefly rentals
5 -- Mediocre Macabre
4 -- Thankfully there were sex scenes
3 -- Waste of Kindle space
2 -- About as much fun as a sack of hammers
1 -- In the amazon archive...unfinished

Thankfully, I haven't given many bad reviews, but it could be because I pick a lot of books based on recommendations from others. That tends to weed out the trash.

Deborah wrote: "I don't rate high, my average hovers just over 3. I guess I see 3 as the default and a book has to be very good or very bad to get anything else. I do have a lot of 4s, but not very many 5s. Lookin..."

OK, I'm curious as to what your average rating is? If you don't know what it is, just go to your profile and under the your picture will be your average. Mine is 3.58 which is actually higher than it usually is. I've been lucky enough to read a few 5 star books in the past few weeks.

Kindlelicious wrote: "9 -- Snuck my Kindle in to work to finish...Hooray for big purses!"

Lol. If an ebook is really good, I read it on my phone at work and if someone sees me I just pretend I'm checking my text messages, lol!

I notice that most of my ratings are 4 or 5. I find that I like most of the books that I read.

1-2 I usually don't finish
3 is so/so
4 good I look forward to the next or am happy with the end.
5 Loved it & make my friends read it.

My problem with this is choosing between 2 and 3 star rating! I try and think of 3 as like and keep/read again and 2 as ok/like but won't keep or read again. I've got a system on my full profile with half stars included so my ratings are more accurate but I've been too lazy to write it on each review so far!

Sometimes I state half stars in my reviews and put the closest number of stars in my rating to what I think it deserves rather than just simply rounding up.

Kindlelicious ... LOL!! I love the rating system. :)

Amy or "Ames" wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I don't rate high, my average hovers just over 3. I guess I see 3 as the default and a book has to be very good or very bad to get anything else. I do have a lot of 4s, but not very..."

I ck'd mine and my average is 3.92 which confirms my thoughts that I tend to rate above 3★. I'm kinda with Andrea on that one. 3 = not a bad read, but not sure I'll read the next one, at least not right away; 4 = good book, looking forward to the next one; 5 = really liked it, wish I could jump into the next one right away.

I have 1/2 stars sometimes, but most of the time I end up rounding up, but stating the 1/2 rating within my review. Ames, your way is probably best w/dealing with 1/2 stars though. If something just barely got that 1/2, then I should rate down and visa versa for ones where that 1/2 was almost an add'l star.

Amy or "Ames" wrote: "Kindlelicious wrote: "9 -- Snuck my Kindle in to work to finish...Hooray for big purses!"

Lol. If an ebook is really good, I read it on my phone at work and if someone sees me I just pretend I'm c..."

LOL! When I first got my palm, I would play games in meetings that were snore bores, now it's books on my iPhone. hehe

I tend to rate kinda mid to low because I haven't really found a book or series that has made me want to read it over and over again and never get tired of it. The 4 stars I have read 2-3 times and of course have bought, but no 5 stars yet.

Love Kindlelicious and Rossy's rating system! :)

I think I tend to rate high. If I struggled with a book for whatever reason I usually give it a 3. If I liked it overall it gets a 4 and if I LOVED it and am very excited about the next one to the point of obsession it is a 5. :) If I rate a book a 3 there is little chance I will continue the series UNLESS I own the next book or love some of the characters. If it is the first in the series I won't bother. If it is a 4 I most likely will continue reading the series at some point. A 5 will be at the top of my wishlist to buy on Kindle and sometimes even on paper if I can't find it on Kindle.

There are some series and authors that I will buy on paper to collect or because they aren't on Kindle and I love them that much. Examples would be: Stephenie Meyer (have all her hardcovers except Bree Tanner which I want badly!), Cornelia Funke, L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries (some are available on Kindle and some are not so I have bought one in paper from the thrift store and will continue in paper) and Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. I love the cartoony covers! Most of those are 5 star. I didn't love ALL of the Sookie books but I love Eric! No spoilers please. I am not up to date yet!

Aske wrote: "I tend to rate kinda mid to low because I haven't really found a book or series that has made me want to read it over and over again and never get tired of it. The 4 stars I have read 2-3 times and..."

Wow, no 5★? I'm definitely a high rater. I have a bunch of 5's and many, many 4's.

AV, I'm with you. There are certain series that I must have paper copies of and will always continue to buy.

Hope you are enjoying the Sookie series. They do have a tendency to go up and down a bit, but overall I think it's a great series.

I pick up each book with 5 stars in my heart and it goes from there. I take off points for the following:
a cliffhanger with no date for the next book
rushed endings
vampires walking around during the day and eating food
fae that can't do magic
broke vampires
heros and heroines that are in constant pain or stupid
multiple pages describing a tree

that's my process.

Steph wrote: "AV, I'm with you. There are certain series that I must have paper copies of and will always continue to buy.

Hope you are enjoying the Sookie series. They do have a tendency to go up and down a bit, but overall I think it's a great series. "

Yes, I am enjoying Sookie. I plan to read Dead and Gone in August. My favorite was number 3 I think...

jD wrote: "I pick up each book with 5 stars in my heart and it goes from there. I take off points for the following:
a cliffhanger with no date for the next book
rushed endings
vampires walking around du..."

LMAO!! I LOVE it, jD! That's a fantastic way to rate them.

I DEFINITELY get annoyed by the descriptor heavy books, blahblahblah we got it, move on! I just read book #1 of Chicagoland Vampires and in that one the vamps can eat & drink whatever they want (on top of blood) and I thought "that must be nice", but it didn't turn me off or cause my rating to drop.

Awesomevegan wrote: "Yes, I am enjoying Sookie. I plan to read Dead and Gone in August. My favorite was number 3 I think..."

Good! :) "Dead & Gone" is a good one! A lot is revealed and a lot happens.

Dang...I just got that Chicagoland one from the library today. I have been on that wait list for weeks. I hope the eating is the only sacrefice and they are not living in the under belly of the city because they don't have funds for a big house and snazzy car. I swear I read one where the vampire was homeless. I burned it. That's just wrong.

jD wrote: "Dang...I just got that Chicagoland one from the library today. I have been on that wait list for weeks. I hope the eating is the only sacrefice and they are not living in the under belly of the c..."

Nope, they're rich. :) I loved the book. It's one of my 2010 fav reads. Hope you like it.

jD wrote: "...I take off points for the following:
a cliffhanger with no date for the next book
rushed endings
vampires walking around during the day and eating food..."

I do the first three too. If the vamps can walk in daylight and eat food then where's the sacrifice in being dead? These vamps are soft!

I agree. Chicagoland Vamps was great and it's one of my favorites for the year too.

Steph wrote: "Awesomevegan wrote: "Yes, I am enjoying Sookie. I plan to read Dead and Gone in August. My favorite was number 3 I think..."

Good! :) "Dead & Gone" is a good one! A lot is revealed and a lot ha..."

I figured that. I read a bit of a review thing to try to see if it would work for a challenge and it gave a bit away. Now I am a stickler over the "gave too much away" thing. I think the backs of books, movie trailers, and Amazon description pages ALL give to much a way. So I am a bit picky. At least I am generous with my ratings :)

Amy or "Ames" wrote: "jD wrote: "...I take off points for the following:
a cliffhanger with no date for the next book
rushed endings
vampires walking around during the day and eating food..."

I do the first three too...."

I completely agree. If you could do almost everything you could do as a human when you're dead, then what's the point of being a vampire besides the blood sucking part? Way to soft for a Nightling that has the reputation of being one of the baddest creatures that go bump in the night.

jD--Your review criteria really got me thinking, those are really good points. As for the cliffhanger thing, I am irritated if a series is started with no next book release date, even if there isn't a cliffhanger. This just happened to me with a Shelly Laurenston series and I found it so annoying.

I stick pretty close I think to GR guidelines but I am a little harsh I think compared to some. Out of the 215 books Ive read so far this year Ive only given 4 books 5 stars.

1 star - Not my thing, I had to force myself to finish it (because I can't leave a book unfinished)
2 stars - It was readable but had some major flaw that bugged me or didn't really hold my interest.
3 stars - I liked it, enjoyable but nothing really stood out
4 stars - Really enjoyed it - couldn't put it down.
5 stars - Loved it, couldn't put it down and had to tell everyone how great it was.

Often I wish for half stars :) Most of the books would likely move up a half if that was the case.
I think I probably think of most books at a 3 and they go up, or down, from there.

I'm fairly easy to please to it's rare that I give books less than 3 stars.

I hate giving out bad scores, but it's something like this:

1 or 2: really didn't like it
3: It was alright and was somewhat entertaining or somewhat well-written
4: It was a good book, and it was, at the very least, entertaining. Something that I enjoyed reading
5: Many of the 5-star books are stuff I read when i was younger, but it has to entertaining and have some sort of memorable scene. Or it has to be very engaging