[Geralt]

Originally Posted by faithbw

That's just chick lit. I actually don't know how many of the total books I've read have 3 star or higher ratings. That being said, why is it a waste of time? People read for different reasons. Who cares if they love all the books they read or hate them?

To each his own. I actually care enough to read only books I know I will love/like. Time is a currency of our lives as someone said, and I dont care to spend it reading books I wont like/hate.

I guess I'm just wondering why you care so much that she or I or anyone would dislike a certain amount of books in a certain genre. I'm still confused about that. Do you think she should write only positive reviews? I just don't get why you think she "reads to hate"? If you read a book completely or even only half way and don't like it, why is it wrong to give a 1 or 2 star rating? I don't think most people start most of the books they read thinking that they'll hate it and give it a bad review. I genuinely read books hoping I'll like them but sometimes that's not the case. Again, I'm just really confused why this annoys you so much.

It's not that I care, it's that I was surprised. Its not a problem if you give 1 or 2 star rating. What I find weird is that rating is accompanied by very very negative reviews thrashing these books, and than she keeps reading in the same genre giving only negative reviews with 1-2 star rating.

Another point is that 61% of the chick lit I read I give good ratings too. 60% of the fantasy books the woman on GR read she gave positive reviews to. That's still a majority. I mean how do you determine whether someone like a genre or not beyond and what your criteria for determining that?

Nope. It's not 60% of fantasy. She reads non-fiction, detective and chick lit. I haven't found a single 5 star rating and positive review for fantasy from her. And she keeps on reading it. That's what I found mind boggling.

As for having poor taste, I'll say that a lot of the books that I have enjoyed and given positive reviews to would be considered poor taste by some. So YMMV.

I'm not talking about guilty pleasure here. You wont write an awful review about guilty pleasure. You know its trash, but you don't mind it. Nothing wrong with that. But that's not what she's doing.

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I just can't get over that she dissed "Mistborn"!!

Whatever her reasons, that's just nutty. If she is a feminist, it makes even less sense.
The main character is a girl who overcomes all kinds of social obstacles to accomplish
greatness - she even kills the uber-badguy.

Luck;
Ken

Apparently the girl had the audacity to fall in love according to her review of Mistborn. Everybody knows real strong women dont fall in love
As a matter of fact I just read this article today on that topic
http://karinacooper.com/psa-the-stro...haracter-myth/

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

Goodreads is very useful to read what a book is about and find similar books, but I take reviews with a pinch of salt.

Hear, hear. I'll drink to that.

Originally Posted by barutanseijin

Who knows? The rater in question may enjoy giving negative reviews of fantasy books that she secretly enjoys because she knows it'll get a rise out of others. In other words, she could be a troll. Or maybe she writes in the genre and wants to pooh-pooh writers she sees as competitors. Could be all sorts of motivations behind the low ratings.

I think Goodread ratings are kind of silly anyway. In essence you're summarising a book with a numerical rating.

Who knows indeed. The shock value is in 1-2 star ratings and reviews that trash the books.

Originally Posted by xg4bx

Not reading per se but from my perusal of video game message boards over the years I've concluded that nobody on said boards actually enjoys video games.

Is that so

Originally Posted by Fluribus

Ummm... Geralt... Have you gotten amnesia again? Have you lost your silver sword?

If she spends most of her time ravaging books, she probably doesn't have enough time to ravage the countryside. But... Then... Better safe than sorry. Uh...

I'm stumped. If the world's most prominent witcher doesn't know what to do...

Originally Posted by mobilelover

hey geralt yes some people are clearly not in the right state of minds I have read several books which I did not like but I never said those books were bad, if I came across a bad book I did not go beyond 10 pages why would I waste my time.

Who is this person any how please share her profile link here.

I really wanted to discuss the behavior, not the individual.

Originally Posted by Soldim

Don't those numbers represent a normal Gausian distribution?

I would only encourage people on GR that don't hesitate to give a rating of less than three stars. Some books are simply not good; those deserve a rating of one or two stars, even if the reader doesn't finish them.

I rather pick a book based on a five star rating from someone that doesn't hesitate to give low ratings to books he or she doesn't like than based on a high rating from someone that only rates books with four or five stars.

I dont know. Ratings themselves wouldn't shock me if they weren't coupled with hateful reviews.

Originally Posted by applesauce

I am addicted to the deathland books, I have read 30 of them now. They are trashie books and and that is being nice. I intend to read them all and enjoy my guilty pleasure, but seriously it would be wrong to give them at best more than 3 stars no matter how much I enjoy them. It would just be wrong.

applesauce

As I said, this is not about guilty pleasure. You wouldn't write a hateful review on that would you.

Originally Posted by glamourgenet

One- and two-star ratings, at least as far as Goodreads is concerned, aren't ratings which suggested hatred. Goodreads intends a two-star rating to be seen as 'meh' and a one-star rating to be seen as, quite neutrally, 'didn't like it'.

I'm somewhat choosy about what I read, and I can count on one hand the number of books I've read through which I've actively disliked, but even so my average rating on Goodreads is only just over three stars. I liked a number of books. I found a number of books suggested to me to illicit nothing more than 'meh' from me. I disliked a few. I loved a few.

Unless somebody has explained their rating system in their profile, I assume that they're following the Goodreads system, wherein even a two-star rating isn't all that negative.

Rating is not the problem if alone. Hateful reviews coupled with 1 star rating trashing everything from concept of the books I mentioned to the characters is what threw me off.