“My GoodReads Rating Modification System

Recently, I tooted on Mastodon:

life is too short…

to read books with less than 4 ★s on GoodReads

There are so, so many good books out there, but also so many trash books too. Since I only have limited years on this Earth, I don’t take GoodReads ratings at face-value. I have an internal algorithm I use to modify the ratings to personalize the ratings.

GoodReads Rating + Positive modifications - Negative modifications = Arkadi cloud personal rating!

-3.0 Book Cover with Man with No Shirt -2.0 Romantic Fiction -0.5 TOO MUCH HYPE! (a la Harry Potter, Becoming) -0.5 Dumb Cookie Cutter YA Fiction Series (Divergent, Maze Runner etc.) -0.4 Ugly/Boring Book Cover -0.3 Famous Author Near End of Career (books too long, editors don’t do their job - Murakami/Stephen King) -0.3 Hot Authors in Media ATM (i.e. Neil Gaiman) -0.2 Part of a Series (I hate the pressure) 0 -/+ +0.1 History book ex. Asia +0.2 Illustrations +0.2 Mixed Exposure (see this book talked about by different people, media, awards) +0.2 Witty/Funny Book Title (i.e. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) +0.2 History book about Asia +0.3 Book Prize/Longlist (Booker, Nobel, National Book Award) +0.3 History book with photos/maps +0.3 Historical Fiction in USA/Europe +0.4 Friend Recommendation +0.5 Historical Fiction (Not USA/Europe) +0.5 Historically Important ““Classic”” Book (Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein, The Illiad, Moby Dick…) +0.5 Taiwanese History Book +0.5 Book Award Prize/Shortlist (Man Booker International, Women’s Prize, PEN/Faulkner, Hugo, Nebula)”,