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Originally Posted by book_addict
Just curious, why do you ignore them?
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This is a re-post of comments I made at Teleread:
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Instead of a 5 star limit I would prefer to give a numerical grade between 1-10 or 1-100. And allow decimals like 8.5 for the 1-10 option. This would help differentiate the reviews better.
I generally ignore the one-star and five-star reviews and pay more attention to the threes and fours. I find them more balanced and these reviewers often state both what they enjoyed and what they didn’t. Many one-stars complain of the high prices, poor customer service, not available in their country, so bad they stopped at page 25, “just awful” "sucks" or “boring.” These statements don’t help me any. And the five-star ones are so over glowing with praise usually ending with “best book I ever read.” Really? Since you can’t give better than 5 stars these books must be among the best humanity has ever produced. Unlikely.
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I never give a one or two-star review because I spend a lot of time prescreening what I read and avoid anything that I most likely won't enjoy. For those I start to read but don't finish I won't leave any review at all as I believe it is unfair to others. How can I grade something I haven't completely read? Even after careful screening I only finish 30% of what I start.
And I've never given a five-star review as for me it would imply the book was a literary masterpiece for which few works achieve. With 1-5 option nothing can be better than a five.