You make an excellent point Janice. I’ll go back in and qualify what I’m saying. I don’t at all mean we should read “the highest rated books!” We’d spend our reading lives never getting past Harry Potter, Steven King, Da Vinci Codes and Game of Thrones! James Patterson can bang them out faster than any human can read them! Ugh!

I personally find ratings useful when they are focused on a particular author as in the example I gave. I use them when I read a new author to help me decide which one to try. I think they’d also be useful in picking out books in sub-genres like ‘cozy mysteries’ perhaps, or ‘Cold War spy thrillers,’ where (I imagine) people who read those sub-genres might have the similar factors in common that you describe. Thanks for your comment.