Rating System for books

Movies, Video Games, and even some comics, what do they have in common? A rating system. Novels do not. I feel that this is a bad thing mostly because people can be unpleasantly surprised by something that they initially thought was a good read. Some people (like me) try to avoid media that advertises or shows activities that are against their standards.

Books can also be placed in the wrong section. I was raiding my brothers library books (since I had read all of mine) when one book caught my eye. I started to read it and it was horrible. Assuming that my brother had been to the Young Adult section I asked him where he had gotten the book. He said that the book was in the children's section!!! The next time we went to the Cerritos library I brought the book to the librarians and told them that this book, which had several F-bombs and sexual innuendo's, was not appropriate to the children's section and should be moved to the Young adults section. They told me that the book was meant for middle schoolers. Apparently that means the middle schoolers get their books from the children's section because the next time I checked it was still there.

Now I can't account for some people's tastes but that book was so wrong that I had to stop reading it. I don't think that most High Schoolers should read this book let alone Middle schoolers! And it is in a spot where any child can reach it. I do not think that is good. I am not suggesting that all books like that should be taken out of libraries. If someone wants to read stuff like that then who am I to stop them? But these books should be put in a more appropriate part of the library and also have a way to inform people what the contents are. A rating system would help with this. It would be able to inform people who want to not read books like that what it is. Also it would not get in the way of people who want to read the book. It would be a big job, to collect and rate all those books I must admit but I would prefer being informed to being surprised and dismayed.