Cloud Atlas question

I used to belong to a book club that had something like this. Some listings in their monthly catalog would have warnings in bold like "Explicit sex" or "explicit language." I imagine it took the work of a lot of people just to go through all the books they added that month looking for something to trigger those warnings. Now think about all the books that are published in this country every day, and that's the problem I see with this.

There is a ratings board that actually watches every movie that comes out in the U.S. and assigns them ratings. Because of that, we know that the ratings for movies are fairly consistent. But that system clearly wouldn't work for books, because there are way too many of them. The alternative model is the TV ratings system. Each network assigns its own ratings to their programs voluntarily. This is a lot less work, but the problem is that it isn't terribly useful, since the amount of effort each network puts into coming up with these ratings varies widely. Some of them just slap a "TV-14" on every episode of every program and figure that they're covered. Others seem to put a lot more effort into it and give individual ratings to each episode of every program. I can only imagine that publishers would behave the same way if asked to provide ratings for their books.

Since you're asking about this on Goodreads, though, I wonder what you'd think about them implementing a system like this. If someone read a book and thought it had explicit sex or language, they could check a box indicating that when they wrote their review or assigned their rating, and the total could be displayed somewhere. But again, I think this would be hard to make useful. Some reviewers here seem to object to kissing and the use of words like "darn," while other people have a much higher threshold. And everybody's triggers are different, with many being highly individualized. (I know some people who object to any harm coming to an animal in a story, for instance.) I don't know if there's any way to account for all this variation easily.

Seriously!
I am shaking my head.
Sorry to have a bit of a rant, but what is it with people? Read the back of the book, a couple of reviews here on goodreads, and then when you still find you don't like reading it once you started, just stop reading it...

See, the thing with ratings is that someone else! makes them, and then the next step is that we sue that person for maybe making a mistake or not meeting our expectations.

Also, as Kenneth said, what are you rating for? How often the word 'fuck' or 'tits' was used?
I have read books which were extremely pornographic and violent without the use of any such words.

I think this is a bad idea. What we need is a bit more responsibility for our own choices and actions...

Be glad you can read and are allowed to read what you like rather than being told what is ok...

Sorry, for the rant :)

I don't believe in a rating system. The concept of maturity has little to do with age, and the flags are ill-conceived notions of what is objectionable.

Is it just cursing and graphic sex/violence? Is it political agenda, social or racism? Is it thematic anti-historic revisionism? What information is flag-able?

Over-use of the word resplendent?

I prefer the unknown in story telling. Books are free from that consumerist garbage that plagues TV and music. You have no idea what will happen on the next page. I would never want to see that mystery destroyed. It would remove the chanced-upon experience that reading an unfamiliar book in an unfamiliar genre would generate. A reader may find a book about explicit class violence to be a revelation despite their abhorrence to this kind of theme in an a general sense.

No, no no to labels and warnings.

I think the rating systems we have need to be revised a lot before we can talk about what we might do with books. Another thing with books is the sheer mass of books we would have to rate might make a rating system implausible.

I disagree with the rating system censoring things by age, and currently, that is all it really does. Rating seems to be purely about censorship; I mean that is really what it's all about.

Would the Bible be rated R? Kids wouldn't be able to buy, read, or be exposed to it until they are of the years of discretion?

Idk, I think that we allow kids to think about far more important ideas before they are so old; I don't see how shielding them from certain things is helping them.

I see art as art; I mean, kids should read whatever they are currently interested in and what they are mature enough to understand.

I think rating systems tend to just let parents keep their children ignorant. Why shouldn't kids know about rape? At some point they need to receive some tools to deal with the idea. What if it happens to them? What if they have the impulse to rape someone?

They need to resources (parents and others) to help them deal with new ideas when they are ready to think about them.

I have a hard time thinking that they are going to find themselves reading something that is more complex than their mind's can handle. It would just be impossible for them to make it through page one.

If a rating system could be purely evaluative rather than censoring which I just cannot see happening, then I might support it. I mean people know their own preference and can find evaluative information on their own.

It's a temptation to say 'come on you're 32 years old, get a grip' but I can remember years ago with the birth of my son for quite awhile I was unable to deal with anything where children were harmed or even just threatened. So I've a bit of sympathy for your predicament.

That said you'll find it difficult to find much in the way of contemporary adult fiction to read.
There is obviously stuff out there and while I could suggest some things it'll probably work better for you to use this site to ask for recommendations.

Either say I'm interested in this book, is there anything offensive in it or I really liked this, can you suggest something similar to it that meets my criteria?

I'm sure you won't lack for responses.

Most newer YA books have an age recommendation on the back cover, at the bottom somewhere. You may have to search for it, but it's usually near the bar code. Adult books are considered for adult audiences, I guess, so I'd say you should prepare for them to be R-rated. Not all of them have objectionable material, but they are for an adult audience, so that tells you what to expect.

I agree with you about the rating system, and I've made comments about it before, particularly in regards to YA. I am an adult, but sometimes YA books have graphic (always violent, often incestuous) sex scenes that have disturbed me. I know I wouldn't want my kid reading them until he's mature enough. Most parents think YA will not have objectionable content, which is not at all the case.

yeah, this one should have been rated V for verbose. I don't think ratings are a necessity in books as you have to actually read the book to get to the bad parts (usually). That said, I usually give an age+ in my reviews. Manga (japanese comics) have a ratings system.