Book Blogger Hop: Do Ratings Affect What I Read?

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Billy of Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Reader that runs from Friday to Thursday in which bloggers answer a book-related prompt. It’s a great way to provide some insight into yourself and introduce yourself to some great new blogs.

Do the star ratings a book receives on Goodreads or retail sites affect whether you buy the book or not?

Star ratings don’t generally dictate whether or not I buy a book. I go first and foremost by summary and by occasionally recommendation.

That said, every once in a while I cleaned up my Want to Read shelf on Goodreads and take off books with low star ratings I don’t own yet. Similarly, if I’ve had a book on my physical shelves for a couple years and haven’t wanted to read it, I may choose to get rid of it if it has a low rating on Goodreads. (Although truthfully, I’d probably get rid of it either way.)

A book having a high rating doesn’t necessarily make me want to read a book. Perhaps it would’ve a few years ago, but these days I choose books much more carefully. I’ve really developed my reading tastes and know how to better cater to them. To me, that’s much more important than a book having 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads.

In fact, I often don’t pay attention to star ratings at all until I’m actively reading or reviewing the book. And that’s just because when I pull up the book to update my reading or to review it, there’s the aggregate star rating. But at the end of the day, my star rating is the only one that really matters to me.

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Do starts ratings on Goodreads/retail sites affect whether you buy/read a book? Let’s discuss in the comments!