this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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Do you normally read books with less than 4 stars? (programming.dev)
submitted 6 hours 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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[–] tal@lemmy.today 9 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Four stars on what rating system?

[–] cactus_head@programming.dev 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

4/5 on goodreads. When someone recommend online, I look it up on goodreads and if its less than 4 stars, I avoid it, usually anyway

[–] tal@lemmy.today 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

I don't think I've ever looked up a book up there to evaluate it. I might glance at an Amazon rating if I'm buying it on Amazon and it's already in front of my eyes. But, let me see what I think.

looks a few books up

I don't think that I'd want to use a 4.0 bar on that website. For example, I enjoyed Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber fantasy series

particularly the early ones

and the first book is 3.97. Frank Herbert's Dune series does, I think, go downhill over the course of the series, but books #2, #3, and #4 all are below 4. Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which I was kinda disappointed with, is 4.1.

[–] Jrockwar@feddit.uk 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Over time I have discovered that for me, the scoring of The Storygraph (which also tends to match Goodreads) aligns reasonably well with my own views.

That being said, there are almost literally no books with 5* and the universally acclaimed masterpieces sit at around 4.3-4.4.

So I avoid anything below 3, and only read below 3.5 if I'm really in the mood for that. That way I'm filtering pretty bad stuff, but not letting my filter stand in the way of many (hopefully any) books I would have enjoyed.

And yeah, there's cases where you don't agree with the rating but that's why there are other mechanisms (like reviews) to supplement it.