The problem with @Goodreads, and most other “book library sites” is that they’ve become slaves to the 5 star rating system. One of our favorite movies is “The Incredibles”. Do you remember the bad guy, Syndrome, “Monologuing”? He says something significant as to why we’re building “Grow my Shelf” to combat the 5 star rating system.

“…and when everyone’s super, (Evil Laugh) no-one will be.”

We know that some are better than others, and we would read them again, but others are going to be relegated to the “once was enough” pile. We know we recommend some books to read, while only acknowledging others as “a good read”. We have to REALLY hate a book to give it less than 3 stars…and usually not for the reasons other readers might consider a valid reason to dislike it.

How does the 5 star system fit into refining or narrowing that “My next book” choice matrix? It’s useless. As are most reviews, since the “personal moment” the writer is having while writing their diatribe may not be relevant to what another reader finds interesting or important to books they like to read.

How does a friend, looking at your “online library” list on most book sites, KNOW what books you REALLY liked? And whether you actually hold them in the same regard for the SAME reasons that are important to them? They don’t. We don’t. More importantly YOU don’t.

Some of the sites (with a wink and nod toward their advertisers and publishing partners) try to put a cheesy comparison graphic together. The readers library is compared to one of their “friends”. This is supposed to help the reader find something to read next. We went on a number of friends profiles on Goodreads (and even Amazon) to try and find our next book to read. Those friends had liked EVERYTHING, so everything got a 5 stars. Lots of stars for authors and books we know we disliked, along with others that we did. Add that to a list of books from other genres that we didn’t care for There was NO way for us to find our next book, and “Grow My Shelf”, based on those libraries and site methods.