What You Want vs. What You Should Rate A Book


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OK, so here's the deal: 
You're reading this book, and it's is amazing for all the right reasons. Impeccable writing, great pacing, out of this world plot. But..but.. there's something ..missing. You're just not feeling it, you know? I mean, this book is right up my alley. I should be Googling whether it is illegal to marry a book or not. I should be huddled in my bed reading it or stalking the author, or buying every other single book they've written. But instead, I'm debating whether I should finish it or not. It's not holding my interest. I'm starting to doubt whether it is my mistake or not, or if I'll ever be able to love a book again. Anyhow, so I've managed to finish the book, but.. but.. I have to rate it. This was SUCH a good book, so I should probably go with 4 or 5. But then again, this was such a terrible book for me. But do readers really care about my personal preferences  If I admit that this is a well written book, isn't that all that matters?
    And for the next ten minutes, I start debating my choices. Then I make a cup of coffee, and debate my choices for another ten minutes.
There's only two solutions here, I could..
A) Go with my personal feelings, and give it a crappy rating, because obviously, this is MY review. I should state MY opinion. I might make a couple of people hesitant about this book, but whatever. I would state that I have no  idea why I didn't like this book, which will make for a very incoherent review, but whatever. I am sticking to my feelings. Plus, if this didn't work out for me, it might not work out for other people. It's a good idea that I warn them. 
or.. 
B) Give this a shiny 5 star review, because who really cares about what I think?  If I know that this is a good book, that's all that matters. That's the whole point of rating books. Like, imagine if you are Simon Cowell, right? And this amazing boy comes up the stage and starts singing, and his voice is heavenly. The audience go crazy, your fellow judges are smiling at each other (and not at you because you are Simon Cowell and they probably hate you). But.. you're just not feeling it. Should you vote him off and kill his dreams just because you didn't have you morning cup of coffee? Of course not!

Now that you've seen both options, what would you do? Personally, I have faced that situation a thousand hundred times, and I almost always go with option B. Yeah I might state that I didn't like the book, but I don't know.. call it taste-unconfidence if you will. I think that just because this book didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for a ton others (and a lot of times it does) so I'm afraid I might drive people away by my low rating. That is not to say I'll pretend I loved the book's bones. I will probably say I didn't, but mention why I think you might like it. What I'm talking about here is the rating, not the review itself.
What would you do, you heavenly creatures?
Oh, and about that heavenly creature things. Don't freak out. It's just that I've decided to give you guys a new nickname every week. Next week's is humanized ice cream cones. (Take it as a compliment.)

29 comments

  1. artsy musings
  2. Eve
  3. thepookapicks
  4. thepookapicks
  5. Kate @ Doing Dewey
  6. artsy musings

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