Ratings, What Do They Mean?

One of the more debatable choices we made at POD People was to attach a numerical rating to each book. These ratings are very subjective, especially given that this is a multi-reviewer site. I have yet to give a 10/10 rating but other reviewers don't hesitate to give that accolade to book they really enjoyed. In the end I figure the reader of the review knows how to take empirical scores on subjective issues with a pinch of salt. I also hope to gather up ratings from multiple sites to give an idea of the range of opinions out there.

One thing that I found interesting is that both my own ratings (blue) and those of all reviewers (black) show a funny little dip in the middle. It seems we tend not to find a book 'just average'. Although our avergare rating is around 6.5 individual ratings tend to get pushed down to 5, or up to 7 or 8. Perhaps, in the end, the rating says little more than thumbs down or thumbs up, after all?

One new thing we will be trying is the "re-review" where I swap recommendations with PUB-ioneer so we can discuss back and forth what we both think of a book.