100 people want ratings on books (similar to movie ratings) so we have an idea of the content in a book before buying it.

Maybe a user rating system would be ideal. That way books and publishers don't have to pay money to be rated to avoid an MPAA situation where they charge thousands of dollars to get a rating and hold you out of theaters until you pay it.

But, if not my "communal" idea, maybe a system like video games has.

Or maybe this... A score card or temperature rating. Like "mild, medium, hot, and explosive" for different categories and the temperature gauge could go by each category rather than overall rating. For example, language doesn't bother me a lot, but sexual conduct and physical violence does. I don't want an "R" rating because of 3 F-words when otherwise the film is mild. I also don't want a "PG-13" rating when all the humor is sexual and gross, but they didn't hit the "F-word" limit to make it an R-rating.

Maybe the categories could be 5 categories: Violence, Language, Sex, Drug/Illegal content, Maturity.

As the father of a teenager (and avid reader), I'd really appreciate knowing the level of content he's reading with specifics like TV ratings (TV-MA LSV = mature due to Language, Sex and Violent content).

I'd use this information not necessarily to censor his reading but spur discussion about the "hard" parts.

Thankfully, graphic novels (especially Manga) have largely adopted this kind of standard out of commercial necessity. Grandma may not otherwise know which of the cute "comicbook" novels on Junior's birthday list actually contain scenes of graphic, disemboweling gang rape of young schoolgirls by necrotic demons (or worse). Stuff like that might just cause a stir with Grandma's church lady friends.

This is a good idea. I usually check out a book's reviews on Amazon to see what readers' thoughts are on the book, or toys on whatever toysite I'm looking on, but they really don't tell me if it's appropriate or inappropriate for children. I'm buying for my grandchildren now and the world is an entirely different place.

This is a great ask. For ages I have thought this is very much needed. I would love to buy books for my 9 yr old neice but won't as I don't have children that age and have no idea what is ok for her to read.

Wicked was one of those books, although I read the whole thing, I thought I was buying, what I assumed was, a children's classic! Not hardly! I'm glad I didn't buy it for a younger person to read without knowing.

... also this would be great so I woudn't have to worry as much about what my kids are reading ...

This is the internet age... and the smart phone age. It would be cool for someone to create an app, where you could scan the book barcode and get the ratings. Ratings could be community provided by users or from a more centralized source. I'd pay for an app like that!

I don't finish at least 90% of the books I check out from the school library because of the abundant f-bombs and immoral actions. It's really annoying!

I've started two books in the last two months that I've had to stop reading because of vulgar language and inappropriate content. This would be great!