I love this idea for a book tag, which I found on Zezee with Books (she says it was created by booktuber GabsAboutBooks). It appeals to my love of data and for sorting things. I use Goodreads ratings sometimes to pick from the too-many books on my TBR list. For example, this year I took all the books I own in print and picked out some of the highest rated to read for my Summer TBR. But I mostly use the reviews rather than the ratings. If I’m not loving a book, I find the reviews helpful in determining whether I should keep reading. Or if I see a book got a lower rating than I expected, I might look to see why.
What is the highest rated book that you gave a low rating? (Sort your books in Goodreads based on Average Ratings and find the highest rated book you gave a low rating)
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
I read this for a book club and I found it very one-sided and the characters not well-developed. It did give me a lot to think about, and I didn’t give it a terrible rating, just lower than the average of 4.5 (I gave it a 3).
What is the lowest rated book that you gave a high rating? (Sort your books in Goodreads based on Avg Ratings, in reverse order, and find the lowest rated book you gave a high rating)
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
I think people really wanted another Where’d You Go Bernadette and were disappointed when they didn’t get it. This book had an average rating of 3.16. I really enjoyed it, and gave it a 4.
What is the most popular book you disagree with the avg rating? (Sort your books in Goodreads based on number of Ratings, and find the first book you disagree with the avg rating)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
This will be controversial, but I am just not a Jane Eyre fan. This book has 2,138,314 ratings and an average rating of 4.15. I gave it 2 stars.
What is the least popular book you disagree with the avg rating? (Sort your books in Goodreads based on number of Ratings, in reverse order, and find the first book you disagree with the avg rating)
The Dutch Girl by Donna Thorland
In 2016 I read this book, which is part of a series about heroines during the American Revolution, and I loved it. The book was a nice blend of history and romance, and a different look at the Revolutionary period. This book has only 445 ratings, and an average of 3.84. I gave it 5 stars.
Choose two books that have an average rating of 3/5 stars but you gave a higher rating
Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen: I absolutely loved this book about a young woman working in a chip shop in Northern Ireland (and wonderfully narrated by Nicola Coughlin.
The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips was a strange, eerie book that received lower ratings than it should have.
Choose two books that have an average rating of 3/5 stars but you gave a lower rating
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi: This was a book that received so much critical acclaim, but I disliked everything about it.
The End of the Day by Bill Clegg: This was a case of having high expectations based on the author’s previous book, Did You Ever Have A Family. I just didn’t care for this one.
Choose two books that have an average rating of 4/5 stars but you gave a lower rating
The Humans by Matt Haig and The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin: These are two books people absolutely love, that I did not. I don’t care for books that feel “cute” and these two did.
Choose two books that have an average rating of 2/5 stars but you gave a higher rating
I didn’t have any 2 star books on the list of books I’ve read.
Do you tend to agree or disagree with GR average rating and do you use GR as a guide for books you want to read?
As I noted above, I use Goodreads ratings sometimes to determine which books to prioritize reading. I also sometimes use them as a check against my own opinion — if I differ from the average rating I’ll read some of the reviews to see why. I certainly use the content of the reviews much more than I use the number, which doesn’t tell you much. You never know who is being paid to rate books. I look for reviews that evaluate a book in a way that resonates with me.
For my own ratings, I still use Goodreads but I prefer The StoryGraph because their rating system allows for more nuance. With Goodreads’ 5 star system, most books get a 3 or 4 from me, because if I liked it enough to finish it, it’s probably at least a 3. The StoryGraph lets you rate in increments of .25, which I find much more useful.
In doing this book tag, I wondered if I’d see huge differences between my own ratings and the average, and I really didn’t. I suppose that’s a good thing in terms of how I use Goodreads.
If you enjoyed this book tag, feel free to use it! And let me know in the comments if you use Goodreads, or another rating system.