Rating books

[DennisK]

We all have our bad days – I hope yours are short lived, zeldas_lullaby.
I think Bookowlie nailed it: Some stories need to build the environment before really getting into the story. Often times my imagination can do that task, but there may be situations that require the author to control that part. The trick is to make that process interesting. I remember a story that went into great detail about a garden as a backdrop before even getting to the story. I enjoyed it, though, because I like gardens. I tend to gravitate towards books that deal with things that I like. There are things I dislike, but you probably wouldn't find me reading books that deal with them. If I started a book dealing with my dislikes, I would probably take on your posture. As an example, The Shack by William Young started out with a father's young daughter being kidnapped and murdered. That obscenity is just too much for me to endure; so I stopped reading it. It laid around on a stack of books for a couple of months, during which time, I kept reading rave reviews about it. Eventually, I picked it up and read it through. It turned out to be pretty good!

[zeldas_lullaby]

Thanks for the support!

Interesting thoughts! You know, I think I've heard of The Shack. I'll have to look it up. Doesn't it have a wintry scene of an isolated shack on the cover? What happened, did it wind up being redemptive somehow? Nice! I love redemption in a book.

Gardens are nice! Are you a gardener? I've never been into it, but my mom has a butterfly garden.

[DennisK]

Thanks for the support!

Interesting thoughts! You know, I think I've heard of The Shack. I'll have to look it up. Doesn't it have a wintry scene of an isolated shack on the cover? What happened, did it wind up being redemptive somehow? Nice! I love redemption in a book.

Gardens are nice! Are you a gardener? I've never been into it, but my mom has a butterfly garden.

Yes - that's the one. There is probably a review of it somewhere in this forum. The story is about redemption, and like you, I love stories that are redemptive. Have you ever seen the movie, CRASH?
We are getting off of topic, but yes, I have been planting vegies .... grapes ....
A butterfly garden? I wonder how she manages that! I had to go to Singapore for business once, and they have a park called Sentosa Island. Part of that park is a butterfly garden - quite impressive.

[zeldas_lullaby]

No, I haven't heard of CRASH! But I looked it up--it looks compelling indeed!

I think if you grow certain plants, they attract butterflies. I don't know the science behind it, or which plants, but my mom definitely has it going on--there are always butterflies out front of her house!! That's cool that you garden, and that you've been to Singapore! (Far away! I've never left the country!)

And I'm getting us back on topic!! I'm seeing now that some threads were added to the Free Fish Friday forum, so I'm going to tab over to them now and check them out!

[gali]

I have split those posts as they were getting off topic.

zeldas_lullaby, would you like people to rate your books based on the first chapter only? Anyway, I don't know if you are aware of it, but participation on BOTM discussion is part of the reviewer score. If we do as you have suggested, people wouldn't bother reading the books for the BOTM and will just read the first chapter and remark on the thread to increase their score. So sorry, no, I don't think it is a good idea.

Margaret 2584, as was said above the BOTM is a voluntary read, as opposed to an OBC official review where the reviewer is required to finish the book. Still, I think it isn't fair to rate a book, especially a book on the BOTM section, based on its start only. But enough was said about it and I won't argue the point any further. That aside, No one has said you can't write your views and there is no need to be argumentative about it. We respect each other here, even when we disagree, and that's what makes this a great and pleasant site.

[Margaret 2584]

I apologise - I wasn't being intentionally argumentative.

[gali]

I apologise - I wasn't being intentionally argumentative.

[DennisK]

No, I haven't heard of CRASH! But I looked it up--it looks compelling indeed!

I think if you grow certain plants, they attract butterflies. I don't know the science behind it, or which plants, but my mom definitely has it going on--there are always butterflies out front of her house!! That's cool that you garden, and that you've been to Singapore! (Far away! I've never left the country!)

And I'm getting us back on topic!! I'm seeing now that some threads were added to the Free Fish Friday forum, so I'm going to tab over to them now and check them out!

CRASH isn't a read, but a story is a story; regardless of its media. I hope you do rent it because how its story is structured is a real work of art. Its beginning developed into something hard to take, but do stick with it. It will only cost you about an hour.

[zeldas_lullaby]

OK, I'll report back if I watch it, DennisK! Thanks for the recommendation.

I thought of a few points about rating books from the "look inside the book." First of all, Amazon sometimes leaves out pages, which could lead to confusion in the reader. I have no idea why, but you could be thinking, "Did the writer leave something out?" But they didn't. Second, Amazon doesn't format the "look inside the book" very well. A solution is to request that Amazon send you a free sample to your Kindle. (I think there's a link on a book's page for that.)

Beyond that, there are so many gray areas. I would say that if you have any sort of agreement wherein you're supposed to read the whole book, then you definitely should read the whole book. But on Goodreads or what have you, if you say, DNF-page 20 (did not finish, quit at page twenty), and here's why (and explain your reasons), then I think that's OK. Under said instances, you can't really say "The plot was horrible," 'cause you didn't finish it--who knows? But you can say, "I was turned off by the horrible writing," Or, "I hated the atmosphere created and I didn't want to stay there in my mind," etc.

If someone rated MY book after the first chapter or so, I'd probably be OK with that...? If there was an arrangement wherein they were supposed to read the whole book, then I'd be furious. (Are there any doubters out there? I'd be furious.) If it was a casual reviewer saying "DNF--page 50 and here's why--this book just wasn't for me and I could not get into it at all," then I'd respect that, because after all, not every book suits every reader. That's not even necessarily a criticism... I couldn't get into that Gone Girl, and it has a huge following.