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Do you normally read books with less than 4 stars? (programming.dev)
submitted 3 days ago by cactus_head@programming.dev to c/books@lemmy.world
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I struggle with this a bit. Even if the book is 3.98 stars, i view that as not passing lowest bar. I consider most 4 stars books to not be there time, but rather the number of stars is how i filter out bad books

Also, how do you use your stars? Do you change your rating often?

For me, it generally goes like this:

  • 1 Star -Either its so bad that its offense or i dnf it
  • 2 Stars - Either bad or mediocre, not really work any time
  • 3 Stars - An okay book with a couple of redeeming points
  • 4 Stars - A great book with some flaws that bother me
  • 5 Stars - An excellent book, i am jumping in my sits.
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[-] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Similar to the other commentor who ignores stars and only reads reviews, I do something similar, but I mostly only read negative reviews.

The problem I have is that positive reviews too often just uncritically praise the book, telling me nothing about why the book is good or why it might be bad. (And the fact that bots are so prevalent only makes this phenomenon worse).

On the other hand, negative reviews often directly state what the reader disliked about the book. So, I hunt through negative reviews to find reviews that hint, or directly mention having elements of the book that I like/am in the mood for.

For example, one time I was in the mood for fantasy where the protaganist does magical research. So I found this one book and started looking through reviews, and I saw this 2/5 star review where the reviewer was complaining "MC never fights, they just research and grind in the lab all day". I started reading that book immediately, and I had a great time.

[-] aurellence@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

That's a great method, and also, your example book sounds like my jam. What was it, if you remember?

[-] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It was Years of Apocalypse on Royalroad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/81002/the-years-of-apocalypse-a-time-loop-progression . Ah, it looks the first book was published to Amazon, so it's no longer available entirely free online.

I also have a list of researcher/scientist type novels I have collected here: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/140708/ . Novelupdates only covers translated works (usually webserials translated from Chinese/Korean/Japanese), so I put the works I liked that are originally in English in the description.

[-] aurellence@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago

Awesome, thank you! I'll check that out.

[-] ZDL@lazysoci.al 3 points 3 days ago

When I read reviews, I look for the reviewer understanding Goethe's rules. Basically they have to answer three questions:

  1. What is this book trying to accomplish?
  2. How well did the book accomplish this aim?
  3. Was this an aim worth accomplishing?

Good review or bad, if it's structured this way, or at least contains this information, I can figure out if I'll like a book or not.

The problem is that most reviewers are utter shit at writing reviews.

this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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