BookTalk101: Stars For Books -- Yay or Nay?

Hi, everyone! :) Release the confetti; blow your horns; do your Lotto 649 dance... It's the weekend! And it's almost June too, which means that I have less than a month of school left before exams and summatives are due, and I couldn't be more nervous-slash-excited x)

But that's not what today's post is about! BookTalk101 is a new little feature I started for the first time two weeks ago, and I thought it was time for another Mimi-crazed, blogging-related discussion (if you don't mind!). Today's topic is:

Stars For Books — Yay or Nay?

In other words: What do you think about rating books?

The 5-star rating system is this whole huge controversy right now because everyone rates their books differently (what some people consider a five may be a four for someone else, and etcetera), but I just have to say that I've never done anything but write my reviews with that system.

I read a variety of different reviews from bloggers who use different rating systems, but I've always found that ranking books from between one and five stars has always worked for me personally. It may be hard sometimes, but it's also easy sometimes too! :)

Here's how I rate my books:

Just like the way I write my reviews, the way I rate books has changed so much since I first started blogging! I feel like I give out 5 star ratings a less frequently now than I did before. Now I only save those for books that I REALLY recommend, and I'm a little more stern on what deserves what rating.

Like reviews themselves, rating systems really reflect on the blogger! Different bloggers use different rating systems and value their stars differently if they do use the same one, and that's A-OK. :) There's a short little note of how I rate books on my side bar, but here's a more detailed breakdown of what I think of books I rate with each star count:

5 STARS: If I was stranded on a desert island, I would take this book with me! Absolutely AMAZING and addictive and unputdownable! It's the kind of book you finish in a night and think about all day. 5-star ratings for me are usually saved for books I think are perfect and brilliant, but occasionally I'll give this rating to a book with a minor flaw that can be easily overlooked since I love everything else so much. :) Buy-worthy, for sure! 

4 STARS: This book is SO easy to enjoy! My 4-star ratings are most difficult to pin down because many 4-star books can be so much better than others. (I think that 4s and 3.5s are my most common rating on Goodreads.)  But overall, 4-star books may have one or two minor flaws but nothing that takes away from the story too much, and they have to be books that I can fly through really quickly too. I would definitely recommend these!

3 STARS: A 3-star book isn't perfect and will probably have a couple note-worthy flaws, but I never regret reading these novels. They're usually sweet, maybe a little predictable, but well worth the read. :)

2 STARS: My 2-star books are saved for ones that are either hard to get through (slow-paced, bad writing, awful MC, etc.) or have something about them that frustrates me enough that it drags my overall view of it down a lot!

1 STAR: I didn't like this book and I probably wouldn't recommend it. :(. I don't rate very many books with only 1-star because I'd usually stop reading before I'd have a chance to finish if I didn't like it this much LOL — unless it's a review book, of course, because I have a vow to review every ARC I get. But I'm really careful to never request a book that I would probably hate, so it doesn't happen much! :)

DNF: Did not finish. If I listed all of my DNF books together, you wouldn't believe how many books would be on it! x) I used to never not finish books, but lately there are just too many that I want to/need to read that if I can't get past the first 100 pages of a (non-review) book, then I'll set it aside for later. (Maybe I'll pick it up again, but maybe I won't.) I never rate these books, but I might write mini-reviews if I feel they're necessary.

(I'm also really abusing half-star ratings in books now too LOL — it's just so much easier than carrying bigger differences of awesome between fellow 4-star books and all that!)

And here's another thing...

You don't have to rate a book according to what everyone else thinks. When I first started blogging, I felt so weird writing negative reviews for books that all my other friends seemed to enjoy! I always wondered if posting my lukewarm reviews was wrong somehow. But now I've learned that I shouldn't feel obligated to like a book just because other people did.

If you don't like a book, I would LOVE to hear why! In the end, I always end up reading a gazillion reviews on Goodreads before I make the decision to buy a book anyways, and I never just look at the positive reviews — most of the ones I read are actually more on the negative side so I can get a feel on whether or not the negative aspects mentioned would bug me or not. :)

I'd probably want to read a book more if it was given 4-stars and an honest, critical review than if a book was given 5-stars and a simple "It's awesome, go read it!" It's the same thing with trusting reviewers who have a variety of ratings more than someone with a plethora of 5-stars! ;)

Do you use the 5-star system when reviewing your books or something else? Do you like reading reviews without ratings or with them? What's your overall take on book ratings? 

(And do you ever get frustrated with rating a book because you have no idea how to label it like I do sometimes? LOL)

I hope you guys have an amazing weekend! :) ♥

-Mimi