Light My Kindle

I’m a fan of Facebook, the social networking site that allows friends to connect, share photos, and even play Scrabble. Facebook has a couple of places for Kindle users to connect. You can become a fan of the Kindle, although this doesn’t appear to be an official Amazon-sponsored page.

You could also join the Amazon Kindle Facebook Group which appears to have been started by someone in the Amazon network.

Both the group and the page allow you to discuss with other Kindle owners, but beware the Amazon product spam in the Posted Links section.

Since I received my Kindle I’ve been carrying it with me wherever I go. I always find a minute to read it, while in line at a store or waiting for someone.

Unfortunately, I left it at home one day, thinking I wouldn’t need it. After all, I was spending the day with my mother-in-law and my young nephews. I’d be busy playing Candy Land and going grocery shopping. I wouldn’t have time to read, or so I thought.

While driving from my mom-in-law’s house to my husband’s office to pick him up after work, I realized I was early by about 45 minutes. I thought to myself, “No problem. I’ll go into Barnes & Noble, get a cup of tea, and read my….uh oh.” I didn’t bring my Kindle. I wanted that cup of tea and quiet reading time. But I knew if I walked into Barnes & Noble I couldn’t just sit and drink my tea without reading a book. If I bought a book, though, I’d be adding to the two other books I was currently reading.

I felt lost. Almost as if I had forgotten my wallet at home.

Now I bring it with me as a sort of “when in doubt” policy. If I bring it and I don’t find time to read, it’s only 10 ounces and doesn’t weigh my purse down all that much. If I do find a quiet moment to read a few pages, all the better.

According to a WENN report from this morning, there are plans in the works to introduce an age-based rating system for books as there is for movies, TV, and video games.

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy that the recent move The Golden Compass was based on, is fighting the plans. He says the rating system would be damaging to young readers.

I happen to agree. As someone who skipped straight from the kid-friendly Goosebumps series to the teen series Fear Street when I was only about 8- or 9-years-old, and then skipped right up to Stephen King novels at eleven, I believe my reading skills would have suffered if I was prevented from reading the books I chose. Granted, I pulled most of these books from my mother’s bookshelf or the library with her permission, but my point still stands. It’s hard enough to get children interested in reading in the first place. Preventing them access to certain content would only make things worse.

For example, what rating do you suppose the first Harry Potter novel would have had? Safe for all ages? How about the seventh Harry Potter novel? Surely it would at least get a PG-13-equivalent. How many of the devoted Harry Potter fans would be prevented from reading the last few installments until they were older?

Worse, what if this ratings system were to be applied to non-fiction books as well? Would children be prevented from learning about the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II because the content is too mature?

As an avid reader, I feel that a ratings system for books would be as bad as the banned books list we see every year. Of course young kids should read certain content (and sometimes I think I shouldn’t have been reading King novels at such an early age, but I turned out okay), but it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the library or the local Barnes & Noble to police what kids are reading.

What do you think - should publishers put ratings on books? Should there be laws that require bookstores and libraries to comply?