This is going to be a short discussion today, but I’ve been seeing a lot of posts in which the author predicts their next five-star read, or books they think will be five-stars for them in the next month/6 months/whatever.
The main thing that confuses me about this is… do you read books you don’t think will be five-star reads? I mean, I’m not here to tell you what to do, but there are SO MANY amazing books out there, and it seems like a waste of time to read something you’re not expecting to LOVE. I’m pretty excited about every single book on my 2020 must-read list, I’m definitely not going to interrupt that with a book I’m like, “meh, this will probably be okay” about.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect that every book I read will be a five-star book. If I’m being honest, I pretty much assume books will be four-star reads (four-stars means LOVED it!), and then the five-star books are always a happy surprise. But that’s just it, they’re always a surprise! How can you predict when and where lightning will strike?
If anything, when I go into a book saying “I KNOW this is going to be my favorite book of the year” I’m almost always disappointed. I think we’ve all experienced the let-down of over-hyping a book, which is maybe another reason those posts confuse me.
Do you try to predict your five-star books? How successful are you? Let me know in the comments!
Never Not Reading 
I rarely give a 5 star review…on anything
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They’re not super common for me either.
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I don’t do these kinds of posts but I think the author might just look at books that are coming out in that time period and see, aha, there is a new book coming out by this author that I like and I will definitely LOVE it or else.
I guess those kind of hyped reads, the ones you’re looking forward to so much, you just expect that you would never rate it any less than five stars? (I never give the rating any thoughts until I’m writing the review anyway.)
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I guess that makes sense. I can definitely relate to hyping a book or posts that have books I’m hyped about.
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I don’t predict anything except I found it interesting and I’m curious about the book. But for sake of tags or question on social media I answer them. Great post!
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Yeah, if pressed or tagged I’ll venture a guess, but I don’t regularly operate that way. 🙂
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Bwhahaha I do get your point Katie and you are right but sometimes I just want an easyto read book. I will like it but won’t be amazed by it.
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I am definitely a mood reader, and a book is most likely to get five stars if it happens to perfectly fit the mood I’m in.
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This made me laugh. I don’t predict star ratings for books before I read them, but I do read them because I expect to enjoy them! 😀
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Exactly. I expect to like it, but I’m not going to think about it much harder than that. lol
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I agree! It seems like asking to be disappointed in a book to predict its going to be 5 stars!
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EVERY. STINKING. TIME.
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Haha love this post. Yeah I definitely only read books I think will be 5 star (and honestly usually I’m wrong…). Occasionally I might try a book people have been bugging me to read even if I think it might be a 4 star but that’s not very often.
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Glad to make you laugh! My sense of humor doesn’t always come across online, so it’s nice to know it did this time. Whew.
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I tend not to get into the hype about a book, I read what interests me, to gain a wide plethora of writing styles and genres as much as I can.
Though I do intentionally read a few books which I know will only rate as average… generally as pallet cleansers between heavier reads, and these are mostly guilty pleasure reads which are fun or cute. Quick reads. They give me a break and a sense of accomplishment.
I have also in the past read novels which I know will be rated really low and used them as an exercise on what I would do to re-draft. Keep my skills sharp for editing my own work. I think reading a doozy every now and then keeps your critical eye in perspective.
I guess it comes down to why you read in the first place…
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I wouldn’t have thought to read something that needs editing in order to edit my own work. That’s an interesting perspective. That being said, I know literally nothing about revisions because they didn’t bother to teach me how to edit for anything other than grammar in school.
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You read books you dont think will be five stars? Hahahha cracked me up. But I do read mediocre books that i dont think will have 5 stars so i am a culprit.
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Goodness, why? Not that you shouldn’t, i just don’t understand. At all. lol
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I definitely see your point, sometimes trying to predict 5 star reads can put a lot of pressure on a book to perform. However, I do go into books already knowing they’re not going to be a 5 star read because they’re outside of my comfort zone, or I’m trying a different genre, or I want to check out something that everyone else is talking about but I know it’s not my exact cup of tea, etc. For me, 5 star predictions are usually for books that are in a series I already know and love or by authors I have a 5 star track record with. Great discussion topic!
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That makes sense! You’re right, I know when I’m venturing out of my comfort zone (especially if it’s for the first time in that genre) that I might not enjoy the book in a 5-star way.
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I don’t try to predict the star rating of a book I want to read. There are three star reads I’m enjoying just fine. Sometimes I want to read something that ‘just sounds fun’, especially between more heavier stuff, even though I’m pretty sure they won’t be 5 stars. Sometimes, I’m pleasantly surprised. In the end, as long as I’m genuinely interested in reading a book, I will read it.
That said, I think predicting 5 star reads is putting a lot of pressure and hype on a book, and you might set yourself up for disappointment that way.
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I am constantly setting myself up for disappointment by being over-hyped about a book. I find that usually my favorite books are books I didn’t expect to be blown away by.
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I would consider that a shame, especially if I were to enjoy a book just fine if I hadn’t hyped it so much. I did do it in the past, though, but no book can live up to that hype.
It’s a lot of fun to be blown away by book you hadn’t expected to be blown away by, though!
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