Ramblings from the Stacks - Reviews and Ratings

I don't remember the first review I wrote.  It was probably on Amazon in the early days where you could find a book review by Harriet Klausner on basically every single book that existed (it was always 5 stars).  After that came Paperbackswap and Goodreads and finally here.  Early on all I knew was I wanted a place to say what I thought about a book I had read.

There's something about writing down what I think about a book that helps it stay with me longer.  I remember it a little clearer and begin to realize more what will make a good read for me.  When I don't I forget a lot of books instantly and in fact have read a book then picked it up again a year or two later and read 3/4 of it before I realized I had already read it.  It's one thing to realize 20 or 30 pages in but 300?  Even though I liked the book that did lower my opinion of it a bit!

Which brings me to the next thing - Ratings.  Before I started reviewing here I didn't think much about what ratings mean.  Amazon, Goodreads, and pretty much everywhere else use the star method so when I first started writing reviews in my own space I did too.  But I got to thinking.  What does 3 stars really mean?  What does 4?  If I read a book that I enjoy but doesn't stick with me at all should it really get the same rating that a book that I really hated in parts and really loved in others?  I tried doing half stars for 3 and 4 stars as that's where most of the books I read land but that didn't quite take.  I pondered a few things - letter grades, getting rid of a rating all together, a one sentence review instead of a rating with a longer review at the end.  And then as usual I thought of something simple.  Simple always seems to be better!

I got rid of the official ranking system and any kind of structure and boiled it down to one thing - what do I say when I finish the book?  My new ratings are - Not For Me, It's Okay, It's Good, It's Great, or I Loved It.   I don't have reasons or parameters but when I finish a book the first thing I think is "What did I think of it?"  and my answer is my rating.  What do you think?  What thought process do you use to assign a rating?

And my final subject today is about books with low rankings.  I think we all agree that honesty is the best policy when it comes to what we thought of a book and that means sometimes a book has to get a low rating.  I don't mind posting a negative review here but sometimes I feel a little more uncomfortable posting it on Goodreads or Amazon.  I'm not quite sure what the deal is there but I had a cozy mystery not too long ago that was just all right and I'm still stalling on posting the review to Amazon.  How do you act when you have a negative review in terms of other social media?  Are you the same no matter what or do you have different procedures?

I'm cutting off the ramblings here though I could go on for hours!  It's so easy for me to fall down the rabbit hole on this subject!