How do you feel about bloggers/readers who rate books they haven't finished? Are you someone who does this and if so, why?
I am completely against this, I mean how can you possible rate a book you didn't finished. I understand if its hard to get through due to unlikeable characters or a boring plot, but why not just say that instead of rating the book. What's so wrong with leaving the rating area blank and still sharing the reasons you stopped reading it? Plus if I see a blogger/ or review who does this constantly, I usually just stop reading their reviews. How can I trust that their giving me honest reviews? How do I know their not just bashing books they've never even attempted to read? Lately this has been bothering me more and more as I've noticed people rating titles that aren't even available as ARC's yet. I know it may not seem like that big of a deal, but its sure to effect whether or not a person decides to read/ or buy a particular title.
I am completely against this, I mean how can you possible rate a book you didn't finished. I understand if its hard to get through due to unlikeable characters or a boring plot, but why not just say that instead of rating the book. What's so wrong with leaving the rating area blank and still sharing the reasons you stopped reading it? Plus if I see a blogger/ or review who does this constantly, I usually just stop reading their reviews. How can I trust that their giving me honest reviews? How do I know their not just bashing books they've never even attempted to read? Lately this has been bothering me more and more as I've noticed people rating titles that aren't even available as ARC's yet. I know it may not seem like that big of a deal, but its sure to effect whether or not a person decides to read/ or buy a particular title.
Sheesh... I didn't even know that some people did that! How in the world can you rate a book you haven't fully read? Now that's just silly. And I'm even more confused about how a person could rate a book that isn't even out in ARC form yet. Unless you're BFFs with the author... how could you have read the book at all??
ReplyDeleteCome on now people. Are we REALLY just judging books by their covers?!
I think if you can't finish a book then it obviously isn't for you. I just usually put it down and forget about it and if l got it for review l email the author and publisher to say it wasn't for me.
ReplyDeletei don't rate books that I didn't finish and usually if I can't get into it . I say why the book didn't work for me.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. If you didn't take the time to read the entire book, it's not fair to the author and the readers of your blog to rate it.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, I can completely see where you're coming from on this. People who do this aren't reviewing a book, they're reviewing only a portion of it, and they might be missing stuff that only gets revealed at the end.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, so long as the reviewer is honest and says, "I didn't read this book all the way. Here's why:" and gives their review of what they did read, then I'm fine with it. Just because I didn't read the last page doesn't mean I'm not entitled to my opinion on the parts that I did read, after all. If a book was boring, nonsensical, terribly formatted, or a hundred and one other things that could prevent me from reaching the end, then that's an opinion that's as valid as anyone else's and I can see no reason why that shouldn't be said. Stating that I found something so boring that I couldn't be bothered to reach the end is just as telling as a review that says somebody finished it in 3 hours. If the whole thing only makes sense in the last ten pages and is otherwise uncompelling, it's not a bad thing for someone to say, "I only read half of this novel, because the author didn't make their plot comprehensible." WHY a person didn't finish can be as compelling sometimes as why they did.
I'd say that the people who take the plunge and review a book and give a good reason why they didn't finish it are being honest in their review, not dishonest. A review is, after all, just an opinion.
I don't ever rate books that I haven't finished. I would just feel weird about it I guess since I didn't read the WHOLE thing so I don't have a full perspective of it. If that makes sense!
ReplyDeleteIf you don't finish a book, it's likely that you didn't like it. It makes no sense to drag your way through all of a book if you don't like it. I think it makes perfect sense to rate a book you didn't finish because the not finishing indicator means the person didn't like it and should rate it as such.
ReplyDeleteIf there are a lot of people who can't finish the book, I want this to be reflected in the aggregate ratings because I don't want to pick up a book I may not be able to get through.
I do agree that books which people haven't read really shouldn't be rated either. Granted, there are alpha/beta readers who may have read the book prior to there being an ARC who could rate the books.
I think it's fine to give your opinion on why you stopped reading a book (people may be interested to know)but what really bugs is people that mark a book as read for a challenge when they didn't finish it. I don't think that should count.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't rate a book if I didn't finish it though. I am reading a book now that I'm not super fond of but I am going to finish it if it kills me. LOL
I don't review books I don't finish. I don't mind when bloggers write about books they didn't finish, but most of the ones I've seen don't rate them either. If they tell me that they didn't finish it and why I find that helpful.
ReplyDeleteI don't review a book if I didn't finish. I might share my thoughts on a comment or discussion in a forum - like say why it didn't work for me, what was the deal breaker, etc - but I wouldn't rate it.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind reading DNF posts, I like to know when a book didn't work for someone, for whatever reason, but yeah, I've never seen a DNF post with rating.
How can you rate something that isn't even an ARC? That's horrible! I'm also against reviewers who rate things without finishing. It's just wrong on so many levels. And if you don't stick with it or don't read past the first chapter, how do you know it won't get better? It might be one of the best novels you would have read if you stuck with it!
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