Ever wish fiction books were rated the way movies are?

[raccoon]

Sometimes I do. I love mysteries. But I don't like too much gore. To put it in ratings terms, a PG-13 mystery is as strong as I want to read.

[ret5hd]

1. Uhhhhnnnn...short answer: no

[ananda]

2. mysteries r us

Me too! I've been a mystery fan since I was a tween and still am
these forty plus years later!

Ratings help too. I'm not a big trash fan either. lol

One thing that helps is knowing if a book is an award winner,
and there are always internet and Amazon reviews .. and they
can be quite helpful almost all the time.

Sue

[On the Road]

3. Not a Bad Idea Necessarily

I don't care myself so much, but not everything is for everyone.

I once recommended "Endless Love" to my ex-father-in-law after reading about a third of the book, then continued reading with great embarrassment some pretty pornographic passages that I hadn't come to yet.

[Donnachaidh]

4. Censorship is censorship, no matter how nicely put

And usually a book's blurb is enough to tell if there is gore inside. So why advocate censorship? And who exactly would be in charge of it?

[raccoon]

5. I disagree about the blurb. My experience has been otherwise.

I don't know that I'd consider that censorship. You could still read the book.

cen•sor•ship
n.
1. The act, process, or practice of censoring.

http://www.answers.com/topic/censorship

cen•sor
n.
1. A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.

http://www.answers.com/censor


Rating books wouldn’t be removing or suppressing them.

[Donnachaidh]

6. wouldn't be suppressing them?

Try asking that question in Hollywood. Especially to the indie filmmakers.

And again I ask you -- WHO would rate them?

And try to review the history of censorship in this country. It's far less black and white than you seem to think. And it goes FAR beyond a blurb in the dictionary.

[raccoon]

7. As to who would rate them, I don't know.

"nd it goes FAR beyond a blurb in the dictionary."

I realize that.

[Orrex]

8. No

However, there are many resources available by which you can assess a book's gore prior to reading past the cover. You can read comments on Amazon, you can post here to ask about a certain work, you can ask friends/family/coworkers about the book, you can ask the bookstore employee about it, you can join a book club and ask other members what they think, you can form tentative speculations based on the author's previous works, etc. etc. etc.

Happily, none of these amounts to censorship, and they all give you the opportunity to discuss the work, the author, or literature in general.

Someone else mentioned that the book's jacket will likely foreshadow any overt blood and guts contained within the story. I think that's a good rule of thumb!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Good god, no.

I don't even think movies should be rated.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. No, don't give them any ideas. Tipper Gore is still lurking about.

Although, if I'd known how fcked up Chuck Pahlaniuk's "Haunted" was, I wouldn't have read it. Owie. We're going to run out of ways to shock ourselves quite soon.

[oldgrowth]

11. Hell No !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[philosophie_en_rose]

12. Sure. It makes it easier to spot the naughty books. :)

(just kidding).

I don't think books should be rated. Ratings would be too subjective and broad. It's easy enough to read the blurb on the back or to just stop reading when a book becomes unpleasant.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Romances often are categorized so that potential buyers don't wind up with

more than they want to see in the love scenes.

[Democrats_win]

14. An interesting idea. The problem with books is the subversive ideas.

The phrase may be a little Joe McCarthy, but you just can't rate books this way.

The ending of Grapes of Wrath is disturbing but powerful. There are things in books that I would have just as soon not read, but as readers, we don't get to tell the author what to write. If the government could tell them what to write, we would all be reading My Pet Goat.

Reading a book is an adventure or like a box of chocolates--you never know what you're going to get. But, OH, the wonderful surprises that we find! Rating books this way is unthinkable, which brings us back to Joe McCarthy. See! This idea of rating books will certainly lead to a slippery slope: rating thoughts.

[shimmergal]

15. No, not ratings, for all the reasons others list

below.

But I disagree that blurbs and even reviews are always accurate indicators of a book's content. The blurb is written to sell the book, and may not capture its content in any valid way. Mysteries can usually be categorized by sub-genre: a cozy mystery is unlikely to have much gore, for example.

It's a lot harder with the new genre of erotic romance: some of the behaviors shown as "daring" may be turn-offs to many readers, but without reviews which explicitly state what goes on there's no way to tell ahead of time.

I'm for more, and better, reviews...and they should be available more widely. Amazon.com reviews are a mixed bag...some are very informative about content, and as a freelance writer and ex-librarian the Amazon search page is the first thing Bookmarked on my computer. But since anyone can post there, some authors get their friends to put in "puff pieces" on their book.