Submit your favourite books that have an average rating of less than 4. Books added that exceed 3.99 will be removed.
See also:
Top 100 Highest Rated Books with at least 10000 Ratings (fiction or memoir, one per series)
Average Rating of 4.6 and above with at least 3000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.5 and above with at least 3000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.5 and above with at least 100 ratings
Average Rating of 4.3 and above with at least 1000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.2 and above with at least 1000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.0 and above with at least 30000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.0 and above with at least 1000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.0 and above, 100 to 999 ratings, and published before 2001
Average Rating of 3.99 and below
Average Rating below 3.6
Average Rating of 3.0 and below with at least 100 ratings
Average Rating of 4.5 and above and with 10 to 99 ratings
See also:
Top 100 Highest Rated Books with at least 10000 Ratings (fiction or memoir, one per series)
Average Rating of 4.6 and above with at least 3000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.5 and above with at least 3000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.5 and above with at least 100 ratings
Average Rating of 4.3 and above with at least 1000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.2 and above with at least 1000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.0 and above with at least 30000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.0 and above with at least 1000 ratings
Average Rating of 4.0 and above, 100 to 999 ratings, and published before 2001
Average Rating of 3.99 and below
Average Rating below 3.6
Average Rating of 3.0 and below with at least 100 ratings
Average Rating of 4.5 and above and with 10 to 99 ratings
737 books ·
254 voters ·
list created September 12th, 2011
by John Burns (votes) .
John
855 books
53 friends
53 friends
Lisa
7484 books
141 friends
141 friends
Phillip
5153 books
139 friends
139 friends
Kamakana
6565 books
453 friends
453 friends
Διόνυσος
6452 books
106 friends
106 friends
Rob
1125 books
39 friends
39 friends
Maurizio (matemati)
1597 books
291 friends
291 friends
Jessica
2117 books
79 friends
79 friends
More voters…
Comments Showing 1-50 of 57 (57 new)
message 1:
by
Lisa
(new)
Sep 12, 2011 05:17PM
KTP, what exactly do you want us to vote on, that they are maligned, or whether we like them?
reply
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Lisa wrote: "KTP, what exactly do you want us to vote on, that they are maligned, or whether we like them?"Ah, sorry, maybe it's a bit confusing. Vote for books that you like that have a rating of less than 3.7. Maybe the title needs changing to something less ambiguous.
There are a few books on goodreads that i consider to be my favourites and which are widely considered to be masterpieces that have bizarrely low ratings. I think it's because these are the sort of books that kids are forced to read at school and end up hating as a result. This list will probably end up looking suspiciously similar to this list: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/53...I myself read Animal farm when i was 13 and thought it was great, then was forced to read it for school at 14 and suddenly i couldnt stand it.
Killthepopular wrote: "There are a few books on goodreads that i consider to be my favourites and which are widely considered to be masterpieces that have bizarrely low ratings. I think it's because these are the sort of..."Is the teaching so bad, I wonder? I loved every book we did at school, I can't ever remember hating any of them because my teachers brought them alive and we had great discussions about them. Maybe I was just lucky...
There are a few books on the list now that have an average rating of 3.7 or better (inter alia by Virginia Woolf, Sandor Márai, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith and Yasunari Kawabata). Should those be removed?
Ok, have just removed a load of books that had 3.7something scores. God dammnit, why is it so hard for ppl to follow simple instructions? Please don't add any books with scores higher than 3.69 cos i'll just have to trawl through the list and remove them.
Killthepopular wrote: "Ok, have just removed a load of books that had 3.7something scores. God dammnit, why is it so hard for ppl to follow simple instructions? Please don't add any books with scores higher than 3.69 cos..."At least Twilight hasn't crept on!
Removed: Wuthering heights (3.70)Death in venice (4.02)
The school for wives (4.01)
The misanthrope (3.83)
The miser (3.78)
Looks like there's a moliere fan who doesn't understand the premise of the list...
For those who have trouble determining a book's average rating (which will not show in a book search performed solely under the Listopia "add books to this list" tab): Open a second browser window (or second browser tab). In that second window/tab, perform a search by author or book name in the search window at the top of every Goodreads page, or access your bookshelves via the Goodreads menu. That way, you'll see books listed the same way as they appear in the Listopia "all votes" tab/mode; i.e., with a red average star rating and, next to it, in small grey print a number and the words "avg rating." Mentally place a decimal point between the number's left and middle digits (so that, for example, the "356" of Lord of the Flies becomes "3.56" and the "368" of Animal Farm becomes "3.68"). Eh voilà! Now you know whether or not your chosen book qualifies for inclusion in this list ...
Removed:Saint Joan
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Oliver Twist
The Great Gatsby
The Crimson Petal and the White (all 3.70)
The Deputy (3.71)
Scales of Justice (3.78)
Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story (4.00)
Removed, for having reached an average rating of 3.7 or higher:The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Portrait of a Lady
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
The Bridge
I Married a Communist
The Strain
Greek Gods and Heroes
Changeling
Dr. Faustus
La Petite Fadette
The Warden
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The House With the Green Shutters
A Very Peculiar Practice
Man of Straw
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Died In The Wool
Faceless Killers
London Triptych
Out of interest, have i put the "less than" symbol the right way round? Does this symbol: < mean "less than" or "more than"?
Killthepopular wrote: "Removed Death in the afternoon by hemingway." Wish there was an option to prevent others from adding to a list?Yes, me too.
Actually this one had 3.70 so i assume it was one where the rating had just risen slightly, but yeah, automated options like this would make the job of list moderation much easier.
Killthepopular wrote: "Actually this one had 3.70 so i assume it was one where the rating had just risen slightly, but yeah, automated options like this would make the job of list moderation much easier." Especially with long and shortlists, where you really can't add to them...
3 big ones gone: Call of the wild, Tale of two cities and Jekyll and hyde. Also Ruth by elizabeth Gaskell. All had 3.70.
Deleted:The Liverpool Vampire
The House of the Dead
House of Sand and Fog
The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
Territory
Paris to the Moon
Anthills of the Savannah
Het Glinsterend Pantser: Roman
Measuring Time
Hersenschimmen
A Place Called Freedom
Anna Karenina
Daniel Martin
The Finkler Question
The Traitor
Michel Strogoff
Whit
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Eye in the Sky
Remembering Laughter
Okay. I voted. I found several books that I personally think are underrated. But the whole exercise seems sort of pointless to me. (I know it's fun, and maybe that's the point. And by the way, I'm not knocking the person who set up the list. Maybe simply voicing a disagreement. Maybe just being grouchy?) Anyway ...WHAT IS TO BE DONE? The ratings of these books are what they are. People read books, then they rate them, generally based on how much they enjoyed reading them, or how much they think they "got out" of them, or if they "grew" intellectually or emotionally by reading them. But, simply put, a lot of readers have basically found many of these books rather boring (I suppose).
Some of them are recognized classics. Are we to not allow people to read (and rate) them unless they demonstrate some kind of critical acumen?
I suppose it could be argued that the top books on the list (once a lot of people have voted on it) are candidates for reading by someone looking for a read that might be better than its rating indicates. Is that the service that the list will hopefully provide for readers (who choose their reading by paying attention to GR ratings)?
But it's kind of hard for me to imagine many people ever finding this list, and then if they did, actually using the top-rated books on it to make a reading list for themselves of books that they wouldn't have read otherwise.
Oh God ... look at the time I've spent writing this long, lengthy, b.s. comment. Please excuse me.
Ted wrote: "Okay. I voted. I found several books that I personally think are underrated. But the whole exercise seems sort of pointless to me. (I know it's fun, and maybe that's the point. And by the way, I'm ..."Made my day, this comment. Hence excused. :)
Riku wrote: "Ted wrote: "Okay. I voted. I found several books that I personally think are underrated. But the whole exercise seems sort of pointless to me. (I know it's fun, and maybe that's the point. And by t..."Thanks for your kindness Riku. 8}
Ted wrote: "Okay. I voted. I found several books that I personally think are underrated. But the whole exercise seems sort of pointless to me. (I know it's fun, and maybe that's the point. And by the way, I'm ..."Yeah, I'd say fun is the point. It's not saying "these books MUST have a higher rating," it's saying "these are books that a lot of people think are better than their rating would indicate." It's a Goodreads list. It's for fun.
Sophie wrote: "Ted wrote: "Okay. I voted. I found several books that I personally think are underrated. But the whole exercise seems sort of pointless to me. (I know it's fun, and maybe that's the point. And by t..."I always endorse fun, Sophie. At least 'till your daddy takes your T-bird away. (I'm sure that's before your time - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXOfYw...)
Ted wrote: "I always endorse fun, Sophie. At least 'till your daddy takes your T-bird away. (I'm sure that's before your time)"Seriously? Because the Beach Boys are so obscure and unknown, right?
Well, I'm not surprised if you know the song, but I reckon it came out before your time. No? (Yes! I just checked your profile.)
Deleted for having ratings over 3.7:Beloved
The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy
The Book of the City of Ladies
The Closing of the American Mind
Removed because their ratings were too high:An Inspector Calls
by J.B. Priestley
3.70 avg rating — 9,935 ratings
Shirley
by Charlotte Brontë
3.70 avg rating — 22,275 ratings
Postcards from No Man's Land
by Aidan Chambers
3.70 avg rating — 1,823 ratings
Past Mortem
by Ben Elton
3.70 avg rating — 3,761 ratings
Removed due to having average ratings of 3.7 or above:Damselfly (4,02)
The Gods Are Thirsty: A Novel of the French Revolution (3.71)
House of Evil and Other Strange Unsolved Mysteries(3.71)
The Fog (3.76)
Subtly Worded (3.81)
As the original creator of this list I've made the decision to raise the rating limit from 3.7 to 4. The reason for this is that since the list was created back in 2011 the average ratings on goodreads have migrated upward so dramatically that most of the books that were in the original top 10 of this list are now no longer eligible for inclusion. When i created the list a rating of <3.7 represented maybe 30% of books on goodreads. These days I'd say it only covers about 10% of books on goodreads. Therefore I'm raising the limit so that the list can revert to its original purpose which was to represent these lower scoring books that deserved more recognition and not just the absolute lowest scoring books on the site.It's also worth mentioning that the uniqueness of this list has been rather diminished ever since someone else created a list with the very similar premise of only including books with a <3.6 rating (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...), so from that perspective it also makes sense to put some distance between this list and that one.
From now on please only remove books that exceed a rating of 3.99. Thank you.
















