UK Book Club discussion

I know this has been discussed a lot on Goodreads in general, but i wondered what people in the group think of the Ratings being out of 5?

I would like it to be out of 10 (or have halves).

I find that i have a lot of books rated 3 and would like to differentiate a bit more.

I think 5 is perfect for the purposes of a website like this.

With scores out of 10, people often view a 7 as an average score. And really, what is the difference between a book that gets a 1, and a book that gets a 4? No-one is going to be interested in reading either something that's below average, or just plain rubbish.

I'd like half stars, which is 10 in effect isn't it? Just seems I often feel a book is 4.5 or 3.5 but it ends up with 4. I have a lot of 4 star rated books.

I'm happy with 5.

I like the half stars too.

I like 5 stars and I think the good reads rating works pretty well. The comments are usually a good guide too. I think the 3 is the tricky number, it means the book was ok. Might be nice if it could be rated good ok, or bad ok. Using half scores.

I use 3 stars as good! 1 is rubbish, 2-ok, 3-good, 4- might reread, 5-excellent, keep forever!

The 3star rating is the tricky one. I often feel a need for a 3.5. But I like to use 4star rate for books I have really enjoyed, despite an accasional flaw. Too many flaws, even if I've enjoyed it, gets a 3 star rating. 5 stars, means truely exceptional.

I think having 5 stars with no halves is quite a crafty move on the part of the 'powers that be'.
Many a time I have felt the need for a half star rating so instead I have written a short explanation/review of the book. If I had been satisfied with my rating I wouldn't have done so.
Star ratings are great but on a social interaction site such as GR reviews are even better.

Whenever there is an odd number in a rating scale, its easy to go for the middle one. After thinking about this question that Andy asked, maybe the Good Reads rating would be better out of 6, so people have to decide between 3 or 4. But somehow, with all the thousand and thousands of ratings, I dont think they'll be changing it.

Good point Nikks.

They could introduce halves so that existing ratings stay the same, people can continue rating in the same way if they want and others can use halves. Everyone gets what they want.

Im receptive to the half star idea.

Definitely had a few that could've been 3.5's this year

I like the idea of a half star too, a lot of my books would have half a star more or less. I would also like to see a 'like' button for comments and reviews which could be fun.

I think 5 stars is just right.

I would LOVE the half star option. Whenever I add a review of books, if I think it should have a .5 of a star, i'll always add that at the start of the review.

Smelleykins, your name is fantastic and the waterfall pictures on your blog are great.

Five is fine but yeah, occasionally, I would have like the option to give a half star.

I'd like a 6th star that you could only give to say 20 books in your collection to indicate an all time top 20. On reaching 20 x 6 star ratings, if you wanted to add a new one, you'd have to demote one back to 5 star. Would create a new way of seeing how your reading tastes develop and change.

I like the 5 stars most of the time, though I have to say I have a few books I would love to give a 5 star to but there is just that little something missing and have have to make do with a 4 star rather than a 4.5

That is so weird... I was just thinking about this. I'd like to be able to use half stars, too. There are some books that just aren't a 4, but not a 5 either. I feel churlish under rating a book because there's no 4.5.

I think half stars would be great. I use net flix and there rating system annoys me as you either like a film or dont like a fil, there is no middle ground. It isthe same for this rating, I would love to half star so many books but end up rounding them up.

I tend to round down particularly with possible 4.5 ratings as I like to see what books have been the complete dogs and thus rated 5 stars over a year.

Ian wrote: "I tend to round down particularly with possible 4.5 ratings as I like to see what books have been the complete dogs and thus rated 5 stars over a year."

I Agree , I round down as well. I don't think we need .5's for 1-3 though. Its just that 4 that needs the help at times

I don't know, I get a bit stuck between 3 and 4 too...

I've found an answer to this.

By creating 10 bookshelves, 1 - 10, I can allocate books to one of these and therefore rate them out of 10.

It works quite well.

Andy wrote: "I've found an answer to this.

By creating 10 bookshelves, 1 - 10, I can allocate books to one of these and therefore rate them out of 10.

It works quite well."

Good idea....

I would love to be able to rate 3.5 and 4.5 etc.....I think that would be a more realistic system.