In true dinipanda form, this post is coming out late (yet again). I honestly thought that I’d have time this week to prepare the post in advance, but it has been a bit of a hellish work week and it just wasn’t happening. I hope that my answers make sense because it’s now 11:00 pm on a Friday night, I just got home and I’m exhausted. Sorry for what might be a messy post!

✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

This week’s topic is:

Reading Star Ratings

Prompts: This topic is inspired by Krysta @ Pages Unbound, who posted about it in 2025. How do you read star ratings from other bloggers/readers? Do you consider star ratings seen on a book blog, Bookstagram, or BookTok differently from ratings on sites like Goodreads? How much does a star rating affect your decision to purchase/borrow/read a book, and does it depend on who/where the star rating comes from?

As mentioned in the prompts, I was inspired by Krysta who wrote about this topic last year. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out Pages Unbound. Krysta and Briana create such amazing content all the time and are so welcoming and inspiring! They have the best discussion posts (and they also run their own weekly fantasy-themed discussion meme). 💜

How do you read star ratings from other bloggers/readers? Do you consider star ratings seen on a book blog, bookstagram or booktok differently from ratings on sites like Goodreads?

If I’m being honest, this is something that I never deeply thought about until coming across Krysta’s post. I don’t think I’ve ever properly sat down to work out my own rating system, so I’m pretty sure that I’ve never intentionally sought out someone else’s, even if they’re new-to-me or I’m unfamiliar with how they rate books.

At a first glance, I guess you can say that I tend to apply my own lens to their ratings until I familiarize myself with their style, which then naturally changes how I view their ratings over time. It goes without saying that ratings are extremely subjective. What someone considers a 1-star or a 5-star read likely won’t be the same for many others and vice versa. It can also sometimes depend on the genre someone’s reading and a 5-star in romance will likely not be the same as a 5-star in fantasy or horror. Even though I don’t have a “fixed” system, I know that my ratings tend to fluctuate based on the genre, and a lot of the time, on the vibe. Sometimes a 5-star read is just a really freaking good time without any deeper reason that that, y’know? 😂

But I digress.

While someone’s rating might catch my eye or intrigue me, I never only look at ratings and never make decisions based on ratings alone. I always read the review and that’s often what I base my “must read” or “don’t read” decision on. I also always check out other ratings and reviews on Goodreads or StoryGraph, but rarely do I look up more reviews or ratings on social media platforms. Sometimes the overall rating on Goodreads will make me question whether I want to read a book, but again, I never base the final decision off ratings alone. Not sure if others feel the same way, but I’ve read books with overall average ratings that are 3.5 or lower and I’ve really enjoyed them, so even if the majority of people didn’t enjoy it, that doesn’t mean you’ll feel the same! However, I can’t lie and say I’m not intrigued when a book has several thousand ratings and it still has a 4.0+ average—that often makes me want to find out what makes the book so universally loved! 🤭

Over the years, I’ve become familiar with a few rating styles of other bloggers/readers, and I know how they compare to mine. There might be a few anomalies here and there, but for the most part, I know if I’ll enjoy a book or not based on how they rate and feel about it. It’s pretty convenient, but again, I never read ratings on their own and will always read reviews to validate my decision.

How much does a star rating affect your decision to purchase/borrow/read a book, and does it depend on who/where the star rating comes from?

For a long time, star ratings never really affected my decision to purchase a book. In the past, even if I was on the fence about reading something, I’d more often than not scoop it up anyway if I saw it on sale. I would always justify it as “on the off chance that I would actually enjoy reading it, I’d at least have the copy ready to go.” 😂 I’ve become much more discerning over the years, but I don’t know if that’s more to do with trusting certain blogger’s/reader’s star ratings more, or because I’ve become slightly more sensible with age. 🤭 I find now that if someone didn’t enjoy a book or they loved it so much it became a new favourite and I’ve generally aligned with their ratings in the past, I will likely not read the book or immediately add it to my TBR. It doesn’t depend on where the rating comes from but it’s the who that matters more to me.

Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽

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Emma @ Page of Emma
Annemieke @ A Dance With Books
Alli @ Alli the Book Giraffe
Lin @ Lin’s Perspective
Raji @ Worlds Unlike Our Own
Abyssal Librarian

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If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!

How do you read other bloggers/readers star ratings? Do their star ratings affect your decision to read/not read a book?

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