So, the lucky winner of the five seasons and fuck-only-knows-how-many DVDs of perving on Brian Kinney is…
… chosen by eeny meeny miny mo that random thingy…
JayHJay of Joyfully Jay!
Congrats to you, pumpkinhead! An email will be flying your way asap. Or later depending on my memory.
Yay!
Dearest Minions
I’m culling my shit feeling very generous and am putting the entire Queer as Folk DVD collection up for grabs.
You’re welcome.
Of course, it has been pre-watched.
By me.
Obviously.
However, if you let a little thing like that stop you from wanting to watch this awesomeness than you are a douche of massive proportions and don’t deserve to be known as one of my minions.
Get lost.
To win leave a comment with your email addy no later then 12noon Monday 6 February 2012 (Perth, Western Australia time).
Ungh.
In the last post about how much technical quality matters, a couple of people touched on the idea of ‘forgiveness’ in relation to reading and gave a few examples of the types of things they would be willing to set aside in view of their overall enjoyment of a book.
This got me curious.
Surprise, surprise.
What do readers actually mean when they say ‘I can forgive a lot’?
What niggles – large or small – would you be able overlook in a book and why? What is it about a story (themes, blah, etc, blah) which makes you able to dismiss any crap?
Besides Tam’s phases of the moon, that is. ;P
In their comments to my post about the whole 5-star thing, Eva and Rhi Etzweiler talked about ratings being based on reading experience and went on to outline what they meant.
This really interested me because I didn’t think I’d really differentiated between my feelings about a book and the actual quality of the work itself.
Consciously, that is.
The more I considered it the more I realised that, yes, there were times when I pointed out a technical niggle which could easily put particular readers off.
By the same token, I’ve also recommended stories you’d think had never seen an editor because I knew they would appeal to certain types of people.
Nor does “technically sound” automatically translate to “five stars” because otherwise we’d all be sitting around reading Doctoral theses and scientific journals.”
Dear God. Just the thought of reading those kinds of tomes makes me want to curl up into a fetal position and start whimpering. Hideous. *shudders*
So, how much does the quality of a book matter to you when you rate it? Perhaps your enjoyment trumps technique every time? Or maybe it’s a balance between the two? Tell me what you think.
Dear Publisher
Fuck you very much for screwing with the awesome posts I’ve got scheduled this week with your new brand of WTFery.
While it is true that I myself have an amazing gift and deep appreciation for the exotically random, the lengths of the weird to which you now go are truly beyond the pale.
Seriously, to try and fuck with your clients (ie the readers who actually buy your shit) to the extent of printing the first page of a story on the left-hand side??
It is just so unbelievably wrong that the most technically advanced super computers in the ‘verse could not even begin to calculate it.
A book always starts on a right-hand page. ALWAYS.
Is there no end to the levels you will sink?
Hopelessly Despondent in Perth.
Truth.
Even more so now I’ve had to do a couple of too-big-for-me culls.
Now ask me about any regrets I might have…
Yeah, I didn’t think there was any point bothering either.
The other day Jen totally horned in on my ratings series with her post about ‘the dreaded three stars’. This included a discussion about what 3 stars actually means to readers and authors.
Besides the fact that Jen is clearly a stealer, a few of the comments reminded me of this and what I’d written in relation to the even-more-dreaded *:P* 2 star rating:
At goodreads, a reader gives a book 2 stars when they think ‘it was ok’.
This explanation says it all because, while I probably won’t look at it again, the book was a relatively pleasant distraction for how ever long it took me to read it.
Sure it may not have blown me away or anything, and I could have easily gone straight on to the next story without giving it much of a second thought, but it really, truly was okay.
It was. Really, truly okay, that is.
Which leads me to my point…
A ‘2 star = okay’ at goodreads is not the same thing as a ‘2 star = meh’ at other reviewing sites.
One indicates a level of satisfaction was had and the other indifference.
So, no, these are not equivalent terms.
And, yes, everyone should get the fuck over it already.
Yeah, I know I was going to do a follow-up post (or three) about ratings, but I was cruising the review sites and got sidetracked because… well…
Have you ever noticed that there seems to be a lot of leather and/or denim-clad, weapon-toting chicks on UF and PNR book covers who are looking straight at you?
How do they know we’re there?
Do you think it’s got something to do with the powers-they-inherited-from-the-family-member-they-never-knew-they-had-who-dies-in-a-suspicious-accident-leaving-them-a-mysterious-object-which-when-they-touch-it-awakes-the-potential-within-them-and-results-in-a-magical-tattoo-mentor-sidekick-love-interest-and-a-shit-load-of-enemies??
Whatever it is, it’s creepy.
*whispers* Their eyes follow you. *shudders*
When I did the series about ratings last year, the issue of those readers who tend to give everything 4-5 stars was raised and the majority of commenters agreed they either take no notice of these reviews or take them with a pinch of salt.
At the time, I didn’t follow this up. Apparently going Teh Cray-Cray affected my ability to be snarky. Who knew such a thing was possible.
Recently, the topic came up again in off-line discussions with a friend and I found myself unable to resist. Oh, yes. I’m back. If somewhat part-timeish.
Anyways, the chat with my mate got me thinking about the high raters, beginning with the fangurls. Let’s face it, most of these people do the 5-star thing regardless of how sucky the work might be. You learn pretty quickly who they are and, just as fast, start to avoid them as much as possible.
You also get the authors and their buddy authors. You know who I mean? The authors who give their own books high ratings and their close friends who do the same and vice versa? Yeah. Just FYI; we readers tend to think those who do this look like total douches. Sorry *not really*, but it’s the truth.
Finally, there are the minions and the sock-puppets (ie the people who, with amazingly convenient spontaneity, magically appear to join goodreads, blogger, etc at just the ‘right’ time). They are the ones who go on the attack whenever another reader dares give their beloved anything less than 5 stars. Fuckwits. Seriously people get a life.
Besides, whether or not you have the public or private support of the author to cruise the internet like a mob of fruitcake lemmings with the obvious intention of wankfestery, the end result is that you actually make the person you’re trying to ‘protect’ come across as a dick. Well, you do. It turns other readers completely off. After all, who the hell wants to take the chance reading their work if they’re going to end up covered in flies like a pile of shit? The end.
So, what are your thoughts about this? Do you dis/agree? Are there any instances when you’ve felt obligated to give a higher rating to something? Speak. Or type. Whatever.
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Kris + Books = Good. *Sometimes*. 