A Game of Thrones
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What age should read this book
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Ingrid wrote: "I'm 13 but I've read and watched a lot of violent, graphic content and sexual graphic content, so nothing like beheading or sex/nudity is an issue for me. Would I be able to read this book?"I can't imagine why not. There are a handful of mild sex scenes throughout the whole series, most of which aren't even explicit, and a variety of perfectly conventional fantasy-novel violent deaths. It's not a particularly violent series, relatively speaking (it's gritty, but it's not gratuitous grimdark), and there's not much that's particularly nightmarish or traumatic unless you're very sensitive. It's not even particularly emotionally dark, for the most part, although a couple of characters later on do have to put up with seeing some depressing things for a while.
In terms of whether you're able to read the book: well, there's some mild archaism here and there as there often is in fantasy novels, a reasonably large vocabulary, and some vocabulary and concepts specific to mediaeval settings, but you'll get the hang of that quickly enough.
Looking at your shelves: if you've read Murakami and Wodehouse and Fitzgerald and appreciated them, I can't imagine Martin would challenge your reading comprehension (although you may not like his style, of course). And I'm pretty confident that nothing in these books would be anywhere near as traumatic as the account of the Khmer Rouge genocide that you've read.
The biggest obstacle might just be that these are very big, long, slow-moving books with immense casts of characters and complicated plots and you might just get bored. If I were your parent or librarian, I might suggest something intermediate between the Rowling/Riordan and the Martin, rather than jumping in at the deep end. But then if I were your age, I wouldn't listen to those recommendations...
Lachlan wrote: "Allwin wrote: "around 15 and above.. because of contents of incest, beheading etc."i'm 14 so I am not sure. I have read books like the hunger games all Cassandra Clare books, the harry potters an..."
Yes, you should definitely read the series.
Marcella wrote: "The sexual content in the books isn't a big issue in the story, and not especially graphic. Nothing that most teens don't already know about. The hardest part of this book is keeping track of the p..."I totally agree with you...now watching the show, that's pretty sexually graphic ...but in the books..not at all....
13 when I read it, and I'm not a murderer/pædo/whatever now. Should be fine for anyone above the age of 11.
Lachlan wrote: "I'm not sure what age I need to bet to read this"I read it at 11 so... All about maturity
I started reading GOT in the summer of my fourteenth year...I'd say if you already know what sex is, you're probably fine to read it.
Parents are the literal worst judge of what is appropriate or not. A lot of adults in general, really.See deluded people who still think pornography should be banned for anyone under 18, or people who think someone who is 17 can't handle seeing someone die.
By a lot of parents' logic, anyone who watched Bugs Bunny should be in ISIS right now, since at several points Bugs blows up buildings and people with dynamite.
Seeing a whorehouse in Game of Thrones isn't much different from seeing this painting http://lh4.ggpht.com/gChnR4RIukYO0X1Z....
Does seeing Michelangelo's David turn children into rapist murderers? No.
If you are not somebody who is suspectible to manipulation from watching/reading violence and graphic sexual acts then I would say that the minimum age requirement for this book is 15 years. However, there are some very heavy adult themes (and potentially monotonous ones; politics, drama...) in this book so if you feel that you are not as mentally mature as you should be then don't pick up this book untill you are 16/17.
I read this at the age of 14 and most of it flew over my head. Whilst Martin has a eloquent way of writing, as a younger reader I found his pages dense and unmanageable.
If you have only really touched Harry Potter and The Hunger Games (pre-teen and teenage oriented books) then I do not recommend A Song of Ice and Fire as it is truly written for adults.
I feel as though this book is best appreciated by 20< year olds. It also goes without saying that the televised rendition of A Song id Ice and Fire is also unsuitable for children.
I'd read far more complex books than Game of Thrones (the LOTR trilogy) at 10. A lot of people I know had too.
I'm 13 and I've watched the show and planning to read the book sometime this year... I think it's fine, unless you're very sensitive to topics like incest, rape, abuse, etc.
I'm 14 and have just began to read Game of Thrones. Personally i'm fine with the sex and graphic violence, and have watched HBO tv series, but i wouldn't recommend this book to anyone in my grade. You have to be very mature and have quite a high reading level to read and comprehend the book.
Would a mature 13 year old with an advanced reading level be able to read this? Violence and sex isn't something to worry about.
Its an easy read with some sex and some blood, go right ahead if you like that, its not going to scar you for life
Well, it sort of depends on maturity level. If I were a parent though, I'd say definitely no sooner than 15. The sex and violence is extremely graphic. Some parts were shocking even to me and I didn't read it until I was finishing up college.
I'm reading ASOIAF (currently on A Feast for Crows) and I'm 17 but I know a friend who started reading it when she was 13/14 so I guess it depends on how sensitive you are to adult themes and your maturity level too. I've never watched the show though so I can only speak for the books.
If you are old enough to understand it, you are old enough to read it.
Janelle wrote: "Well, it sort of depends on maturity level. If I were a parent though, I'd say definitely no sooner than 15. The sex and violence is extremely graphic. Some parts were shocking even to me and I did..."There really wasn't 'that' much graphic sex in the first book. Violence was worse but there are many books worse out there that people can read at younger ages. I read it at 13. Good stuff, I could have read it at eleven, to tell you the truth - I was that old when I read Malazan, a book far worse and far more complex and hard to swallow. Overall though, ASOIAF only got bad with the later books - book 1 was mild at best (the worst violence was Eddard's head, I believe).
So, I'm 12, and I've been wanting to read GoT for a long time. I have no problem with violence or sex/incest. But many people say I'm too young.
Katie wrote: "So, I'm 12, and I've been wanting to read GoT for a long time. I have no problem with violence or sex/incest. But many people say I'm too young."Goodreads terms of service requires you must be at least 13 to join Goodreads. You're not even old enough to be here, let alone be reading an adult themed book.
Richard wrote: "how is homosexuality controversial exactly?as far as i can see if a 14 year old has the reading temerity to make it through a book of this length then they are likely ok to deal with it
as for d..."
It is controversial because there are people who have differing opinions on the subject. That is plainly the definition of the word CONTROVERSIAL.
Georgia wrote: "Amber provided an excellent answer."I agree!!
I am a 14 year old who likes fantasy and who is mature, and I am considering reading the book, is it okay for me to do that? It would be great if I got some sort of response with an answer-thx
William wrote: "I am a 14 year old who likes fantasy and who is mature, and I am considering reading the book, is it okay for me to do that? It would be great if I got some sort of response with an answer-thx"
I would definitely say go for it!
William wrote: "I am a 14 year old who likes fantasy and who is mature, and I am considering reading the book, is it okay for me to do that? It would be great if I got some sort of response with an answer-thx"
Here's an answer with a broader application: when asking a question, define your terms. Often questions answer themselves when they asked in a sufficiently clear fashion.
What does "is it okay for me to do that?" mean in this question?
Does it mean "am I allowed to do that?" - well, who is stopping you? Legally it's probably allowed, although I can't speak for every jurisdiction in the world. Would your parents (/guardians) be happy about it? Well, I don't know your parents/guardians, or what rules they would use. My parents would have had no problem with me reading it at 14 - I read much grittier things much younger - but my parents aren't necessarily your parents.
Or do you mean "is it safe for me to do that?" - well, what dangers are you concerned with?
Are you worried you'll be traumatised by it? Well, trauma is individual. What do you feel about what hurts you? Do you get terrified when you read that a man is holding a sword? Do you break into tears when you read that someone's foot is broken? Then clearly, this probably isn't something you'll enjoy reading. Or do you spend every evening watching R-rated action movies and slaughtering your way through thousands of nazis in computer games, laughing as the screen turns red with simulated viscera? Then you may have other problems, but you're not likely to be traumatised by the novel. You're probably somewhere in-between in this scale, but I don't know where. Only you know that. If you're worried about being scared, disgusted, or sad, think about what does that do you, and how easily, and whether a novel set in the middle ages might be something that would do that to you. And if you start, and find you don't enjoy it, you can stop.
Or are you worried about the moral/psychological consequences of exposure? Is the question "will this turn me into a psychopath?"? Well, I hope not. If it does, then probably a lot of other things would have done anyway. But maybe it will. Research into the effect of violent films, etc, on adult behaviour is still rudimentary. Do you feel that reading about swordfights and throatslitting might turn you into a killer? You know that better than we can. Or do you worry that reading about the occasional prostitute might make you a nymphomaniac? [if so, stay away from the internet during your teenage years, because there's way more graphic stuff online than a few badly-written sex scenes in a book]. Again, that's something only you can judge.
See, if you ask concrete questions, you can get concrete answers. "Does the novel feature xyz?" - that, we can answer. It does or it doesn't. But when you ask us to make a value judgement - "is it okay?" - that's not something we're going to be able to give a consensus, objective answer to. We don't all share the same criteria for "okay" - and even if we did, many of the things we'd need to know to make that judgement meaningfully - things about you, what you like, what you don't like, what you can handle, what you can't - are things that we don't know.
So when you ask someone "is this okay?" (almost any time in life!), the answer you get will tell you nothing about "this" or "okay". It just tells you about the person you ask. Go to Alabama and find a hardline fundamentalist pastor and ask him if it's okay for you to read this book, and there's a good chance he'll say no, it's not okay. There's a good chance he'll say that about any book. But go and ask a liberal academic (who was a hippy growing up) if it's okay to read this book, and there's a good chance they'll say yes, it's okay. There's a good chance they'll say say that about any book. That doesn't tell you anything about this book, or any book, just about conservativism and liberalism.
There are lots of commenters above who will tell you you shouldn't read this book because it'll traumatise you, damage you, corrupt you, and you won't understand it. I cannot understand how they could possibly think that. I can't see how a book, and a relatively tame book at that, could possibly damage someone as mature and developed as a 14-year-old is - and I think that if books can do harm, the cure is reading more and other books to counterbalance them. But I also recognise that those conservatives above, they probably can't understand how I could possibly think that either. So this tells you nothing about the book, but just about who is answering the question.
Personally, ideology aside, when I was 14 I'd read many more disturbing books (and in hindsight I think the most 'dangerous' weren't the ones with overt sex and violence, but those that encouraged ideologically questionable assumptions that I probably wasn't old enough to critically evaluate at the time). People my age were watching violent films, playing violent video games, playing surprisingly violent actual games in the playground, watching the nightly news and the comedy and satire and discussing the iniquities of US foreign policy. Many of us were drinking at least a little; some were smoking pot; some were having sex; all of us were watching porn and swearing. We were forced to read Shakespeare, and Brave New World, and a whole bunch of other books with 'challenging' content, and we all knew all about the Nazis. And I grew up and went to school in a sheltered, middle-class, academic environment. If you'd told me, when I was 14, that it might somehow not be "okay" for me to read a book in which people often hit other people with sharp metal sticks and made a sexual allusion once or twice and maybe even had a vaguely-written sex scene, I would have laughed at you, and found the entire suggestion ridiculous.
But you are asking the question. So you don't find it ridiculous. So you at 14 are clearly not the same as me at 14. So, given I know nothing else about you, how can I possibly give a meaningful answer to that?
[I can't even go by your other reading. Looking at your profile, the only thing there that I've read is 'The Hobbit'. Yes, it's more challenging than 'The Hobbit'. I suspect it's more explicit in its language than the 'Little House on the Prairie' books, but maybe less traumatic in actual events (I've heard some upsetting things happened on the prairie!). It's probably more explicit in its languages than the Harry Potter books too, although aiui the Potter books do get into some dark content themselves. ]
So my only helpful advice (don't worry about not taking it, nobody does - that's how advice works*) is to think about the nature of questions. When you ask a question, what are you seeking? What sort of answer are you looking for? What does the question mean - do you know yourself what question you want to ask and, if you do, does the question contain enough information for others to know how to answer it in a way that meets your needs?
In other words: "it depends what you mean by 'okay'". I can't see anything wrong with it, but there are lots of things I have no problem with that other people don't think are 'okay'. Some people think that having instrumental music in a church will lead inexorably to damnation - our definitions of 'okay' can vary wildly....
*advice is like a signpost. It's completely useless unless you've already decided that you want to go where it's pointing.
/lecture. Sorry, philosophy graduate. "Be more specific in your question" is like the "try turning the computer off and on again" of philosophical thinking...
Not worth it, regardless of age.
I was 13 when I read this book. But I was a very advanced reader and understood a lot of the topics before reading.
depends, although I'd say 12-13 is a fairly good age to read it. However, this book can be read at any other age, if the reader can sit through the whole book
It's really up to the reader, their ability and maturity/understanding. I personally do not believe in shielding people from concepts/books/movies/etc for any reason, especially age. Yes, I am a parent of a young child, and I have let him watch movies that are rated above his age (not so much books, as his reading ability is not strong enough yet for such material). I've also been raising him to question things he doesn't understand, and not to just immediate what he sees, reads or hears.
Hai wrote: "yeah, I seriously doubt any kid is going to pick up a Game of Thrones book just to leaf through it for the sex and violence. I mean the internet is RIGHT THERE.As for my two pennies, I think anyo..."
I completely agree, if I thought my 9 year old had the reading ability for it I would have no problem letting him read it and discuss anything in it he questions.
Jordan wrote: "I concur with most of what I'm seeing here--it's not a question of assigning a hard-and-fast age so much as it is a consideration of maturity. There are some pretty knotty topics being discussed he..."I think is has more to do with the maturity, and comfort, level of the parents and not so much of the children. And yes, I'm a parent.
it depends on the person.but I guess 14 and + is totally fine
It definitely depends on the age.
I’m a 14 year old boy, I read quite a lot and I’m quite aware of sex, incest, gore, partly through my love of history in which many occasions of these things happening I’ve read about. Would this book be suitable, friend of mine recommended it to me and she’s of the same age and maturity as me. Thoughts?
Shay wrote: "I’m a 14 year old boy, I read quite a lot and I’m quite aware of sex, incest, gore, partly through my love of history in which many occasions of these things happening I’ve read about. Would this b..."I would say go for it. I doubt you will read anything worse than you have read in the history books. If you feel like its too 'adult' then just stop reading it.
Thanks, just wanted clarification
Jacob wrote: "If you feel like its too 'adult' then just stop reading it."Yeah, because that's what teenagers always do when they come across something "too adult" for them. Lol.
Please does anyone here have "The everything learning German book" in a pdf format..Please be of help
i agree with heather. age is a number. it doesn't know how matrue you are. as long as you understand about sex and vilonce then you will be fine. ether way, i read it when i was 11 so...
Read it when I was 13. Very good. Read it when you're in that YA Romance faze to make you realize how dumb you are for reading that shit
I would recommend reading it at 15+ or something. But don't take this from me as I'm a thirteen-year-old who's mothertoung isn't even English and I've read these books XD
Francisco wrote: "I don't know people make to much of a big deal about sex. I think the only reason why kid should not read these books is because they are very very hard. But if you are able to wrap your head aroun..."I've watched "R" stuff since 5th grade; half the time with my parents and the other half not
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I really think it's something you should ask your parents.