You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

I'm pretty much a newcomer as a goodreads user, and I found myself really demotivated by the negative comments which are commonplace over most books that I am currently reading/ to-read... Is it really that most of my books are not worth reading, or it's that goodreads reviews are not reliable?

Well Skye, first of all: welcome to Goodreads!
And second: I think EVERY book is worth reading! As long as YOU enjoy it! The author has put a lot of time and effort in it and will be glad to hear that someone enjoys it! Don't worry about other people's opinion. If you liked it, it is worth reading.
Happy reading!

Yes! Welcome to Goodreads. :) I think most books have positive and negative reviews. A couple of hints as to which reviews to tune into -

First, figure out what sort of things do and do not bother you in stories. Do you need a likable main character? Or how about reliable? Are you able to suspend your disbelief easily? Or what about repeating concepts, scenes, sentences? These are just a few examples of things that someone might give a negative review for that may or may not bother you. Once you know which ones affect your enjoyment of the story, you know what to look for in a review. There have been plenty of times someone has given a book a negative review and when I read why I decide to still read the book.

Another idea is to start to figure out whose reviews you can trust that is similar to you. Some reviewers will have similar taste and some will differ a lot. Once you start recognizing some of the reviewers you'll be able to know if you can trust their opinion to be similar to yours.

For starters, just find books that you have recently read and check out the reviews on those. I don't think that any book is not worth reading if you're interested in it, but I also don't think that the reviews are completely unreliable. It's just that opinions differ.

Kristie wrote: "Yes! Welcome to Goodreads. :) I think most books have positive and negative reviews. A couple of hints as to which reviews to tune into -

First, figure out what sort of things do and do not bothe..."

Thank you so much for responding! Well, I haven't found things that annoy me during reading yet, and I still don't have a concrete idea on how a 'good' book is. I hope I could get the gist of it after being an immersed reader.

btw, as you're the moderator of the group, I'm really curious about the monthly book challenge - are the two books shown on "currently reading' of the group the challenge? And are there any forum for discussing them?

Elsbeth wrote: "Well Skye, first of all: welcome to Goodreads!
And second: I think EVERY book is worth reading! As long as YOU enjoy it! The author has put a lot of time and effort in it and will be glad to hear t..."

Thanks for the encouragement! I'll indeed try my best to follow my interest of books before blindly following reviews.

I think helps if you pick which people to "friend".

I don't just "friend" people just to collect friends. I look for people whose reviews kinda match mine. You can do a comparison between your books and those of another person to judge whether they have the same tastes in reading material, If they don't, then in general I don't "friend" them. (By the way for those few books that you have listed as read, we agree on our ratings of them.)

Friends reviews will display at the beginning of your page, before the remainder of the community reviews.

Sometimes I "friend" people who write extremely clever reviews, They are just about as much fun as reading a book.

I also have "friended" (is that a verb?) a couple of people who consistently write negative reviews of books that I have really enjoyed, just to get another perspective. Don't recommend to choose more than a couple of those.

Welcome to Goodreads. With time you will have the right mix for your tastes.

skye wrote: "btw, as you're the moderator of the group, I'm really curious about the monthly book challenge - are the two books shown on "currently reading' of the group the challenge? And are there any forum for discussing them?"

The group reads and the monthly challenge are two different things. We nominate and vote for a theme for the group reads, then nominate and vote for books that fit that theme. The two books with the most votes become our group reads.

Nominations are found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
Discussions are found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

We are currently voting for our theme for July. The poll ends in just a few hours, but it is still open if you'd like to vote here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

The monthly challenges are posted by two of the other mods. They come up with great ideas every month and we try to find a book that fits their challenge and read it during the month. Occasionally, the group theme and monthly challenge books may overlap and fit both, but generally they are different books. You can find the monthly challenges here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

We also have a yearly challenge. This year it is "twisted trivia." You can look up all the details in these threads: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

And we have a toppler about to start. The toppler is a sort of read-a-thon that we have every other month. Sometimes we have teams, sometimes we don't. This time it is a more competitive team toppler. You can read all about topplers here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

There is a lot going on in this group! The best way to figure it out is to just check out all the threads and see what interests you.

True, Almeta! I do look at my friend reviews more. I also pay more attention to certain friend reviews than I do others.

Hi skye

Welcome to YLTO!

I try not to let the reviews overly influence me, though they do have some impact. The thing to remember is that reviews are all opinions, so it's probably worthwhile to add friends who rate and review similarly to you.

Kristie wrote: "skye wrote: "btw, as you're the moderator of the group, I'm really curious about the monthly book challenge - are the two books shown on "currently reading' of the group the challenge? And are ther..."

Wow Kristie that was a great summary of our group's activities. You need to keep that as a template for future newbies!

Thanks, Almeta! ☺️

Welcome Skye!

One simple thing is to look at the average rating. If it's high (my personal guideline is above 3.7) it generally has positive reviews. Although as with anything, there will always be people of a different opinion. I don't think you'll find one book that does not have negative reviews. After all, we can't all like the same stuff. If it's low (below 3.5) that usually makes me think twice about adding it to my tbr. I read books with high ratings that I didn't like, and I may have missed out on some I would have liked and others didn't, but with all the books in the world this works for me as a first step.

Some people are very good at writing reviews that are elaborate and with pictures and everything, and I sometimes get the idea that these get a lot of likes and end up on top in the list of reviews. They are just opinions of one person though, so they do not necessarily represent the more general opinion of a book.

And like others said, most important is what you think of the book. If you're enjoying it, it doesn't matter what others think of it :)

Welcome Skye!
I tend to not read negative reviews before reading the book because I find that they tend to color my own reactions to books. Like if I have an evaluation at work that is almost all positive but there's one low score I focus on that. So I've had negative book reviews make me go into a book already looking for bad stuff and maybe i would have liked the book more if I hadn't read the reviews first. I tend to mostly like every book so I'm not really picky. Sometimes when I'm done with a book and something about it annoyed me or if it's a book I can tell is one people would either love or hate then I'll go back and read negative reviews

skye wrote: "I'm pretty much a newcomer as a goodreads user, and I found myself really demotivated by the negative comments which are commonplace over most books that I am currently reading/ to-read... Is it re..."

Neither. Choose wisely the friends you follow and reviews you read. You learn quickly whose views align most with the way you approach book-reading. Also groups are a great source for recommendations from folks you have gotten to know a little better, perhaps. I hope you enjoy this site. it's one of my big joys in life.

Hi Skye,

In a lot of cases, I like to go back and read reviews after I read a book. I think negative reviews have their place, and just because someone else did not like a story, they are entitled to their opinion. Same is true for the opposite. I like a lot of books that others do not. We are all human and we all have our own opinions.

Read reviews or not, it is your choice.

I have learned over time, to recognize others who like the same kinds of books that I do, and I do follow a lot of reviewers and other people. I like to see what is going around. I like to catch those really snappy and wonderful reviews that others write and I am not above reading negative comments, especially if they are done well!

I dont really pay much attention to reviews. I usually pick books by authors I have read, I use book groups to expos me to new authors.

I rate books here with just the stars I have made at least one author angry because i just rate. It my good reads and I can use it the way I want,

Renee wrote: "I rate books here with just the stars I have made at least one author angry because i just rate. It my good reads and I can use it the way I want,"

Have you had an author comment on that? That is surprising. Unless you were given a free copy with the expectation of a review they really have nothing to say about it. I've done that before too. Sometimes I just don't feel like posting a review.

I have never won a good reads giveaway. I try but i have no luck. The book was historical fiction. The author felt i should have explained my rating. She was new. I think she wanted feedback. I wa just really annoyed that she asked. I honestly dont know why I was annoyed

I had an author complain to me about a rating and review I gave her book. She offered to send me her next book, but she never followed through with it. I would have read it and given my honest review.

Renee wrote: "I have never won a good reads giveaway. I try but i have no luck. The book was historical fiction. The author felt i should have explained my rating. She was new. I think she wanted feedback. I wa ..."

Because she pestered you! Good riddance to her insecure self.