So I just joined Goodreads this summer. Yes, I’m a little slow to the game, but I didn’t know exactly what it was about. Now I added all the books I’ve read for 2012, but I haven’t done much more. Haven’t added shelves or anything.

I’ve also only rated a few books. This brought me to the issue I thought I might run into in the future. And I wondered how others handled it.

Do you do book ratings?
Do you rate your friends’ books?
(For this post, I’m just asking about ratings, not reviews.)

Even though I rated a few books, I’m debating whether I want to get into that at all. I am one of those people who would probably only do ratings of 4 or 5 stars. I wouldn’t rate anything if it were a 3 or lower, because I hate to hurt people’s feelings. And also, if I gave a low rating, I’d feel I have to justify it with an explanation. And I hate writing reviews.

As a writer, I’m getting to know all sorts of other writers online. And what do I do if a ‘friend’ has a book that I didn’t like. If it were a 3 or less, I wouldn’t rate it. But then they’re gonna know I think it’s a 3 or less because I didn’t rate it a 4 or 5.

So do I just avoid rating any at all? Do I only rate non-friends books?

Does anyone else worry about this or is it just me? Do authors go to their ‘friends’ Goodreads pages to look up if their book was rated or not?

Do you believe a lot of people rate their friends’ books 5 stars no matter how they feel about them?

Whew, a lot of questions. But seriously, if you have any advice on how you handle ratings, I’d really love to hear it.

Thanks.