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MormonTimes.com: Rating books for offensive material

What a great help for parents and others who prefer wholesome reading materials. Yes, I am able to make my own decisions and I have decided to fill my mind with uplifting information and to avoid vulgar and base reading material - but sometimes you don't know what you are getting until you have already invested in a well promoted book that doesn't meet expected standards. Just like I like to know what to expect when I go to a movie, I am excited that this service is now available, so we can make good, informed decisions on the books we read.

This article makes me sad. Its a sad commentary, and more of the continuing wave of anti-intellectualism across the country.

Someone who will read books ahead of time and tell you if you should read them or not based on their smut value.

Why go to the trouble of developing and sharing your own values and preferences? Just go ahead and borrow someone else's!

When did we turn into such a lazy, intellectually weak society?


Don't answer that, I think I know.

What a great idea and service to others. After reading the article I went directly to ratedreads.com and got a feel for its purpose. I have added this to my "favorites" as a reference and as a guide to future reading. Keep it up. I'm anxious to see many additional books rated.

I always wondered who got the job to watch movies, and now read books, to determine what the rating was. Now I know, it is some woman deciding what to put on the WARNING label. You know, I think we are all grown up enough to figure things out for ourselves. Just my opinion.

I am sure the Scarlet Letter rates as highly offensive. Funny thing is that I know a woman who would not "allow" her daughter to read Harry Potter. She even protested, and the teacher submitted to the reading of it in a public school. I know that the daughter merely snuck the book. Isn't that a great lesson? Be so neurotic about something fairly benign so that you teach your children to sneak behind your back.

I would hope she just does it like I do. Start the book and if it is good keep going. If it becomes quite offensive in one way or another, just stop and rate it. No need to get into the garbage. I guess since she has different levels she rates at, that she must keep going. Too bad for her but a great deal for us. There has to be a better way...but, I can't think of one.
I've noticed if I get Christian publishers USUALLY I can trust them. (Not always.)

Wow, there is a lot of negativism out here for someone who is sharing what she has found out about books she has read.

Not everyone has time to read all of the books that are being published. If she does and decides to give her opinion on it, good for her. So, if I don't want to waste my time reading trashy books, and I have a way to find out if it is immoral, why should anyone else care if I look to see what she thought of it?

I guess by the (lack of) logic being demonstrated here, we shouldn't bother to rate anything anymore. Lets not rate movies or video games for sex or violence. That mpaa rating is nothing more than censorship isn�t it?

On second thought, with the moral values of this world deteriorating and with explicit sex and other filth showing up everywhere, lets keep the ratings. Rating something isn't the same as censoring it.

It seems like many people are assuming that she reads the book even if it is pornographic. That doesn't seem to be the case. She tries "to select works that she suspects will meet her standards"

Once upon a time we relied on a notion espoused by a wise man who said, "teach a people correct principles and they will govern themselves."

Who needs "services" like this when you have correct principles?

I think the ratings of reading and seeing media are often off the mark. I think to label something adult reading or viewing if foolish thinking. If it is not appropriate for a child it is not appropriate for an adult. If it becomes offensive to my values, it goes into the fire or garbage or I leave the theater. I will censure my own intake. But thanks for the warning of your reading and viewing effort it may save me some time. I however would not want the job of censuring something. I wonder however if the intellectual excuse so often used isn't in its own way a lazy answer that can lead to insensitivity and appathy concerning what improves our relationships with each other.

Your comment makes me sad.

Why is it anti-intellectual to hold an author's feet to the fire? I have to craft my work so as to competently and completely tell a good story without appealing to the reader's basest instincts. That's all I require of other authors, as the price of my patronage.

What seems to me to be anti-intellectual is the elitist, literature groupie notion that a book's author is engaged in something other than a business, and is therefore somehow "above" having to write something people will buy. A corollary is that it's my job to sift through all the chaff to get to whatever important insight the author has for me.

Bushwa! What am I paying the author for?

If an author feels he has a right to require me to wade through manure to get to whatever pearl of wisdom he has for me -- I can do without him and his pearl.

And he can do without my patronage.

Thanks, Ms. Lim. Keep up the good work.

The county library has a "Gentle Reads" booklist of books that fit this criterion.

Ultimately what we decide to read and what we decide not to read is a matter of personal preference. I enjoy living in a country where we have the right to choose that, and I hope that right is never taken away. When a people lose their right to choose their reading material, their society is in danger of losing other freedoms.

To: Call me old fashion - the wise man you speak of was a Prophet of God! The Lord said to use wisdom in all things - To me it would seem wisdom and a sence of Intelligence to look at services around us that can better our own lives. To be intelligent I don't have to sit and read or watch smut and things that turn my stomach or give me nightmares when I try to sleep. Just because she gives her oponion on something does not force me to either read or not read something - I can use my intelligence with the help she has given and decide for myself if this is something I would enjoy. I see nothing wrong with this and am grateful for her imput.

I for one think this is wonderful. I do data entry for a living at the moment, and so I'm blessed with the opportunity to listen to my ipod for 40 hours a week. I listen to audiobooks regularly, and there's a LOT of filth out there. Even books that glowing reviews have things in them that I don't want to listen to, especially when I'm trying to work. There is no mention of those scenes in the reviews or in the synopsis on the back, and you don't usually don't know they're there until you stumble across them. There are literally hundreds of thousands of books out there that, at first glance, seem benign, but aren't once you get into them. That's not something that I care to litter my mind with, and I like that somebody is trying to do something to help others.

And just a note, just because you have the correct principles doesn't mean you can automatically know exactly what the content of an unread book is.

Interesting how people feel free to give their opinions about how someone else shouldn't be giving their opinion. Remember just because someone gives an opinion doesn't make it a fact and doesn't effect my ability to form my own opinion. There is still freedom of speech (and opinions) in our country.

Thank you for making a service like this available for parents who often have no idea of what their children are reading. This is very helpful. It's just like going to a movie. You often times do not know what is going to come up and when you realize it, it is too late because you've seen it all. It is hard to leave something that you are really into.

For all of those that think her "service" admirable, look at the bible loaded with murder, incest (resulting in multiple pregnancies), attempted murder of one's own child, adultery, war and much more. Please rate that Book with the same measure as any other book and please be honest. Until then, I will consider it hypocrisy.

The Bible does not enter into graphic depictions of any of those instances. It mentions them, usually as a warning, and then moves on. We don't read the vivid descriptions of exactly what one person is doing to another person, in such minute detail that it is impossible not to picture every second of it in your mind. There is a vast difference between mentioning the word "murder" or "adultery" and having the graphic description of the act laid out before you.

It would appear that Fahrenheit 451 is closer than we think. In actuality, there has never been a book that didn't offend at least one group or person.

Censorship is about fear. If we had a strong society, we wouldn't fear books. If we had a strong religion, we wouldn't fear people reading. If we had a strong political philosophy, we wouldn't fear research.

Utah has a ways to go before we can live without fear.

I'm afraid many great works of literature will not stand up to the 'uplifting and wholesome' standard.