Goodreads... again!

I like to post the Goodreads happenings.  So here's another one:

Today I noticed that someone had added another rating for FREEFALL by Mindi Scott.  

I clicked.

I saw. . . ONE STAR!

I gasped (literally) and exclaimed, "One star?!"

I mean, not that one star is unimaginable to me. Some people are going to like my book; some people aren't.  I know that and I'm totally okay with that.  (I really am!)  But I will admit that seeing the first one-star rating after receiving a couple of great reviews and emails over the past couple of days was a little bit jarring.

I investigated further to determine whether there was any clue as to why the reviewer didn't like it.  There wasn't a text review, a link to a website, nada.  That's when I noticed that the category in which FREEFALL was marked was "to-be read."  Ah!  That was perplexing, but reassuring.  Perhaps somehow in adding it to the list, the reviewer clicked the star on accident?  But THEN I saw that most of the books on her list are also marked as "to-be read" and they have ratings attached to them that are all across the board.  Meaning . . . what?  I don't know!

Anywayyyyyy.  I received my first one-star rating on Goodreads today!  It might or might have been intentional and the reviewer might or might not have read the book.  But you know what?  Either way, I can handle it!

How to use the number ratings on Goodreads.

(This is the first in what might become a collection of posts where I yammer on about Goodreads.  The good and bad of it as I see it.)


I notice a lot of this on Goodreads:  "I wish I could have given this [x] and a half stars."

Um, people?  That makes no KOMO 4'ing sense.

Goodreads doesn't leave room for interpretation.  That's one of the things I like about it.

1 = I didn't like it.
2 = It was okay.
3 = I liked it.
4 = I really liked it.
5 = It was amazing.

What would a half a rating even look like?  Especially a 3.5?  "I was exactly halfway between liking it and really liking it"?

WHAT.

Sometimes, I find myself wanting to respond to every comment about the desire for half ratings, asking them to elaborate on what it would really mean for them.  I did it once.  Not, like, in a rude way or anything.  I was friendly.  But I think it would be cool if people would understand and use the rating system the way Goodreads was set up, you know?  FOR CONSISTENCY'S SAKE.

Goodreads

Apparently, I signed up for Goodreads at some point in my life because when I went to the site and logged in with one of my email addresses and one of my passwords, it worked.  I entered in a few books I've read.  What an amazing time-suck this will be!  Anyway, if anyone wants to be Goodreads friends (or whatever they call contacts there), I'm cailet25 at hotmail dot com.

One thing that strikes me so far is the rating system for books:  1. didn't like it.  2. it was okay.  3.  liked it.  4. really liked it.  5.  it was amazing.

It's skewed from how I usually rate things.  I generally think of a 1-5 ranking as a letter grade system like in school.  1=F, 2=D, 3=C, 4=B, 5=A.

So, something I would have given a D or an F would both get graded as a 1 on Goodreads.  C=2.  B=3.  A=4.  A+= 5.

Which means I use a lot of 3s & 4s, and am pretty stingy with the 5s.  I wonder if anyone else finds this to be true of how they do their ratings, too?