Book Ratings

From the Independent, there's the news that JK Rowling has joined a growing list of pissed off Children's Authors in the UK who are fighting major publishers plans to band and categorize books by age at which they should be read. Phillip Pullman, Terry Pratchett and other authors are joining a rapidly expanding list of people opposed to this particular bit of stupidity on the part of UK Publishers.

Books are off limits. Really, do they need age-based ratings? Are people really that anal about what their kids read? Movies are different thing entirely, but books and reading have a sort of innate ratings system that seems to handle itself. If you're 8, you're probably not going to pick up a copy of Lady Chatterly's Lover. Maybe Harry Potter, but not truly adult books. The nice thing about reading is that the content, complexity and yes the maturity level advance with age. So by the time you get to high school, you're able to handle more adult books.