Salman Rushdie took a bunch of flak for giving beloved books at poor rating.

Well, I don’t like the work of Kingsley Amis, there it is. I don’t have to explain or justify. It’s allowed.

He was operating on Goodreads, but Rushdie has not claim his author’s page yet. And, he says he was unaware the ratings were public.

Is the reasoning behind people getting upset that if they like Midnight’s Children and To Kill a Mockingbird, then Rushdie must also like TKaM? I’d assume the odds are terrible that any of my favorite authors, like the same books as me. Or even close friends.

Mainly because if my rating for a book differs from yours? GREAT. That’s how it should be.

Odds are that I probably disagree with you about something. What I want from you as a friend or acquaintance is an understanding of who you are. And that means determining where your likes or dislikes diverge from mine.

There is one friend who talks about all the movies he watches Saturday night. Those he loves, I cross off my list because I probably will hate it. Those he dislikes, I add to my to-watch list because I probably will like it. I’ve even bought movies just on his complete despise of them. Having opposite tastes and still being friends seems utterly normal to me. But then, I’ve talked books all my life with friends and never found anyone whose tastes exactly mirror my own. Sure there is usually some commonality, enough for us to enjoy some of the same things, but usually there are some gaps.

The more the merrier.

For the nerds:

Goodreads does not include a Rushdie book in any of their books like TKaM.

Breaking down the Goodreads ratings of TKaM compared to my friends of the same…

5 stars: 50% general users, 51% my friends

4 stars: 30%gu, 35% mf

3 stars: 14% gu, 12% mf

2 stars: 3% gu, 2% mf

1 stars: 1% gu, 0% mf

That some 45 people I know rated this book is pretty impressive.

My Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone friends number 49.

5 stars: 59% general users, 50% my friends

4 stars: 25% gu, 32% mf

3 stars: 10% gu, 11% mf

2 stars: 2% gu, 7% mf

1 stars: 1% gu, 0% mf

I find it interesting the pattern looks roughly the same. Half gave it 5 stars, a third 4 stars, an eighth 3 stars, and the rest 2 stars or below. A Game of Thrones and Pride and Prejudice fit the same pattern. Basically, really popular books get really high ratings. Do highly rated books get high ratings because they are good or because lots of people like them?