Rethought: To Rate or Not to Rate? (A.k.a. a Shout-out for Help!)

Rethought is a weekly feature here, on Rebook424, where I discuss bookish and not so bookish topics.

Let me tell you a short story.

Once upon a time, there was a blogger. She, along with bazillions of other bloggers, used a rating system in her reviews. She found it useful as she could easily keep track of her preferences and was convinced that the readers required it, too, because it allowed them to see the outcome without gleaning through the details. 

The spark of doubt flared up in her about a week ago, when she looked back on her earlier reviews and realized she didn't agree with the ratings she had given anymore. This revalation led to a bunch of other question then, such as "That review wasn't all that positive. Why have I given the book 5 stars?" "Are all the five star books the same?" "Rating system is so inaccurate and confusing. Do I need it?"

I don't know. No. And not really. I used to think, I could not review without ratings. I considered them the best was to show people how much a book impressed me. But I realized, it's just an often misleading number. It's more important to state what I liked and disliked and what bothered you because something might bug me, but doesn't influence other people at all. Still, I give it a low rating and people will think it's not worth their time and that's not okay. So now, looking at it this way, ratings are utterly irritating me. I would like to get rid of them and I have an idea that perhaps would express what I want to let people know better.

(Cue drumroll) 

I would like to use GIFs in order to portray my feelings about a book. I imagine something like this:

If I really love that book and go all fan-girl mode at only the hear/sight of it:

When I'm in love with the story head to toe:

or

If I like it:

If not so much:

If disappointed:

If it made me roll my eyes:

And you all know this one:

The point is, the possibilities are endless. Well, almost. But that's not the point now. At any rate, I could express what I feel about a book a lot more efficiently than via numbers and I believe it would be more fun.

Please, PLEASE, let me know what you think in comments. I really want to know what you guys think, since as much as I would love it, I'm absolutely unsure about the idea. So please, comment and share so that more people can speak up about their views on the matter. Thanks for reading!

How Do I Pick My Readings?

It's not an easy exercise to decide whether to add a book to our already 100+ TBR list or which book to get off it next. I myself have over 200 books waiting for being read and sometimes it would be great to just read all of them at the same time, but unfortunately that would not be a good idea for several reasons. :) It's just that there are so many intriguing books and we have to pick one or two tops, furthermore by the time we read it the list has thickened with ten more! So have do I fish one of the Goodreads sea?

1. I read the synopsis:

Never would have guessed, have you? :D Of course I start with reading the synopsis and try to decide whether the story is interesting for me or not. It's an important step for me, but I never choose only based on this, especially that there are some very scant ones.

2. I read a positive and a negative review

It's very important not to read only one side. The best is to read as many review as possible and necessary to get the whole picture, but if I'm lack of time, I always at least read a longer positive and negative review, looking for aspects such as:



- What did they like/dislike in the book?
- How was the world building?
- What were the characters like?
- Was the author's style/writing good?




Every person is different and there are traits that don't bother some people whereas it do others so I also take thoughts on how much a trait would bother or not bother me.

3. I seek out an excerpt

Lately I've always read if I found an excerpt from the book and I did spare myself from a book I wouldn't have liked. Because although the first pages do not tell you how suspenseful the plot would be, yet you can conclude certain things, for instance the author's writing's style which is, at least for me, is a relevant aspect, and it definitely tells you about a bit how good the book can be expected to be. Moreover, you learn some useful information like; whose POV the book is in? All in all, this is something I would recommend you to do.




What about you? How do you pick your next reading?

Abbreviations - Advanced Vocabulary of a Reviewer

Today as I was writing the review about Shimmering which book was written by an Indie author. And here we are. If you are brand-new to the review world/book blog, you might not know what's that mean along with POV, FMC, MMC, etc. I was like this first, too so here is my little compilation of what I learned since I started. :)

POV: Point of view. It refers to the character who narrates the story. "Divergent is in Tris's POV."



Indie: Independent author, that is who doesn't publish their book through a publisher, but by themselves. Read more: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2011/12/09/self-publishing-indie-author-definition/



FMC: Female Main Character.



MMC: Male Main Character.



ARC: Advanced Reading Copy. Before a book officially gets published, the author or the publisher gives out a copy to people who then have to review it, often within a given time-frame. There are websites as well that help to conduct the book-review exchange such as NetGalley.



OP: Out-of-print. Not too much description required, I believe. Books that no longer being printed.



Pb or Ppr: Paperback.



unpag: Unpaginated. The pages are not numbered. 



DNF: Did not finish book. Book you did't finish reading, but review though. Reviews generally don't rate it in this case, but mark how many percent they read. E. g. DNF 48%.