They mostly aren’t. Any quality book normally comes out with a rating in the 3.5 to 4.2 bracket. It’s only pulp for a particular fan group that gets higher ratings because normal people don’t read it and therefore rate it.

Anyway why would you care what goodreads thinks when the man has a Nobel Prize for Literature?

surely avid readers raise the average a lot, the mean not very much

By definition anyone who sees this post reads more than average, you need to ask somewhere non-book-oriented like a gaming thread.

You could, but if you think that you might not like this sort of thing, it’s easier/cheaper to start with the Hobbit. It’s also an easier read.

The Hobbit is separate from the Lord of the Rings and is pitched more at children. I’d advise reading it first, because if you don’t like it you can save yourself even attempting the longer book.

The Lord of the Rings is 1 book in 3 parts but absolutely must be read in the correct sequence: the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, the Return of the King.

You don’t know if you like fantasy - do you/did you like myths and fairy tales? if you did, you may well like this kind of fantasy; if you didn’t you almost certainly won’t.

There are other kinds of fantasy of course but Tolkien is elves, dwarves and other beings, if you don’t want that, don’t read it.

Sometimes we have a book in English translation and original French or German, this is because the rest of my family don’t read French and German as readily as I

I might read synopsis type blurbs of a book I have heard little of. These are usually on the back.

Reviewers are irrelevant, they scratch each others backs. And most of the media they work for I abhor anyway.

62 - retired - all books except horror and chicklit - yes, Shakespeare wrote differently from Stoppard, but it’s not an issue, you can like both, one or the other or something else again - I don’t know if faster, how do you measure?, but it’s not an issue: language has always changed and some people have always moaned about thatt though it’s as unstoppable as the tide - actually this usage happens surprisingly rarely in contemporary books and as long as it’s appropriate to the book content why would it be an issue?