"I'd like to give it 5 stars" my 5 year old daughter said, "because the lion didn't eat anyone."
We both judge books according to how much we enjoyed reading them, as opposed, for example, to literary merit, cultural significance or the authors' writing talent. The short discussion I had with my daughter about rating picture books on Goodreads showed me, however, that we can be using quite different criteria in our judgements. We both enjoyed Deborah Niland's Its Bedtime, William, the story of a little boy who finds a lion in his room at bedtime. I enjoyed seeing the tables turned and a toddler having to deal with bedtime avoidance strategies from an unfamiliar angle. My daughter was pleased that the lion was satisfied with an apple as a bedtime snack, and William survived to string out bedtimes in the future.
The ratings that I give reflect my personal and usually immediate reaction to a book. How I feel about a particular book on a particular day is, however, influenced by a whole range of factors. Was I in the right mood for this book? Was it written in the style I like, or a genre I enjoy? Did it suffer in comparison to other book I've read recently, or have I given it a higher rating than I would otherwise because it stood out in a field of less than enjoyable reads? While I do sometimes go and back and adjusted ratings (usually, but not always, down), the fact remains that the ratings I give are an emotional response not an objective one.
When I first started using Goodreads, it was to record what I’ve read because my memory for titles and authors is so unreliable. After a while, I decided I’d use the rather clumsy star rating system to record how much I’d enjoyed the books, because even with authors, titles and cover images recorded, my memory again proved unreliable. Though I’ve sometimes found the reviews written by other Goodreads users useful, I decided against writing any myself, reasoning that any time spent writing means less time for reading. And I would rather be reading.
We both judge books according to how much we enjoyed reading them, as opposed, for example, to literary merit, cultural significance or the authors' writing talent. The short discussion I had with my daughter about rating picture books on Goodreads showed me, however, that we can be using quite different criteria in our judgements. We both enjoyed Deborah Niland's Its Bedtime, William, the story of a little boy who finds a lion in his room at bedtime. I enjoyed seeing the tables turned and a toddler having to deal with bedtime avoidance strategies from an unfamiliar angle. My daughter was pleased that the lion was satisfied with an apple as a bedtime snack, and William survived to string out bedtimes in the future.
The ratings that I give reflect my personal and usually immediate reaction to a book. How I feel about a particular book on a particular day is, however, influenced by a whole range of factors. Was I in the right mood for this book? Was it written in the style I like, or a genre I enjoy? Did it suffer in comparison to other book I've read recently, or have I given it a higher rating than I would otherwise because it stood out in a field of less than enjoyable reads? While I do sometimes go and back and adjusted ratings (usually, but not always, down), the fact remains that the ratings I give are an emotional response not an objective one.
When I first started using Goodreads, it was to record what I’ve read because my memory for titles and authors is so unreliable. After a while, I decided I’d use the rather clumsy star rating system to record how much I’d enjoyed the books, because even with authors, titles and cover images recorded, my memory again proved unreliable. Though I’ve sometimes found the reviews written by other Goodreads users useful, I decided against writing any myself, reasoning that any time spent writing means less time for reading. And I would rather be reading.
