Discussion When You Want to Read a Good Novel, What Do You Look For?

So, a bit more detail into the question.

When you look for a good novel you wish to read, what are some criteria it must have, and what about cliches? Do you pay attention to the ratings? The reviews? Do you look for novels with certain tags? Certain Language of Origins? Etc.

What are some of your preferences when you go to look for a good novel? I personally just look for at least a ratio of 4:5 good ratings and bad ratings. Good ratings, for me, are '3~5 stars', and bad ratings are '1~3 stars'. Yes, my bad and good ratings overlap at 3, but it's the way of ratings on a 1 through 5 scale.

I look for good ratings, good reviews, and how many chapters the novel has. A lot of chapters and a promising premise means I'll at least put it into my reading list.

 

If it has a lot of ratings from people, anything above a 3.8 is pretty good for me. I don’t check the comments anymore becuase I’m too easily swayed by people’s personal opinions and I don’t end up reading the story.

 

Well, it almost certainly has to be CN. The genre should be BL usually (or highly recommended BG/no romance). Ratings are so so, though I usually won't read anything under 3 stars.

I'm ok with most genres though; like horror, survival, school life, etc.

Comedy or tragedy depends on my mood.

And then, I open the first chapter and make sure the grammar won't get on my nerves!!! If it's okay, then I'll read it!

 

Me too, buddy. I try to not look at the comments, because usually, the worst-rated one is the most liked. That strongly sways my emotions... but anything else? Any particular parts you wish the novel includes?

 

Well I’m alright reading pretty much everything but recently I’ve just stopped reading Chinese stories as I’m tired of all the arrogant young masters, face slapping, and all the racism. Also Chinese apocalypse novels are something I regret reading

Edit: Everybody, please don’t take this as anything racist.

 

I never really got into the Chinese novels either... the plot was almost always so... cliche. It just felt way too... boring. Someone suddenly is able to cultivate. Young masters can't believe that. The MC kicks them in the face. The Young Masters shut up. Heroines are 2D, etc. However, I did like one Chinese novel, Spirit Realm.

 

I forgot to add that I do check the release schedule and I usually don’t read anything that has less than a 2 ch a week release. Even then I will stock up or buy the chapters.

 

Eh..........? You are dedicated enough to buy chapters and read them????? I can't really understand that... you could wait for a while since most translators release chapters daily/weekly, ya know... I find that there really isn't a point in buying chapters from translators aside from helping b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶ encourage them to translate more.

 

I only look at JP novels, then I look a the title to determine if the premise is interesting, then I read the first few chapters and decide whether or not I've been drawn in, and if the translation is good enough. Reviews are ignored all together because my tastes are superior to everyone else's.

 

Lmao.... 'My tastes are superior to everyone else's'... does that mean that the ratings don't matter to you as well? What if the story was said to have a horrible plot near the end...? Or that the translator got replaced and now you only get Pure MTL?

 

Yes, reviews tend to focus on things I don't care about like that. If the TL quality is really that bad and the story is good, I'll just read the raws. The main reason I phrased it that way is specifically because I think the opinions people give in their reviews is worthless to me.

 

that... that sounds even more arrogant...

however, I understand... but if you can just read the raws, why even bother reading the TL's?

 

TL's take about half the brain power if done well.

 

But... what about you yourself translating the novel! You could go and translate the novel! Allow more people to read the masterpiece whom your superior self has chosen to translate! Become a translator today!

 

I am a translator, but I'm on break right now since I've caught up to the story I was working on. Also, writing things out takes way more time than just reading.

 

But............... sacrifices for the readers........! Think of the readers! They need tons of chapters! Don't care about yourself! Allow others to see your superiority! Fuel your ego! Translate!

 

I skip anything that was originally Japanese because the translators half-ass the translations. I get that weeb-chan thinks it's moe to leave all the onii-chans and senpais in but fuck it's annoying to read.

 

Yes, ratings do not matter and neither does other people's opinion. The best approach is to just check out any novel that strikes your fancy.

 

1) I filter out tags of whatever I definitely want to avoid.

2) I check the title, group, author, tags, and description for things I definitely want to avoid (some tags I don't mind separately but dislike together).

3) I close NU and go to a bookstore since I don't expect "good novels" here to begin with. Plenty of fun characters with interesting settings and stories, but if I want something well-written I'll look for something other than a light novel or web novel, yeah.

 

I always look for the ratings and reviews. I prefer novels with at least +4 rating, but if I'm very intrigued by the synopsis and the rating isn't the best, I'd look for reviews. I also check how many translated chapters are there, it's a pain to catch up when the translation process is so slow): THE PAIN OF SPLITTED CHAPTERS AAAAA. I, of course, understand how hard it is to translate, as I am a fellow lazy one.