Why aren't books given age ratings?

[DoesWhatNintenDont]

Honestly?

While book sales are higher than ever before -- due to increased population world wide and improved technologies for printing -- the current generation is not a reading one. Many people buy books, to make quaint libraries and to look smart, yet never actually finish the vast majority of books they purchase.

There are exceptions to your complaints though, for instance one can readily look at porno magazines. Of course it isn't a novel, and the obvious visuals make it a target. But their are books like "The Anarchists Cook Book" which many stores require you to be 18 to purchase, just as a liability issue.

But in all reality, the major irony of this who concept is that in most, at least American, public high schools Shakespeare is manditory reading.

Good old Hamlet and his incest with his Mother never seem to bother any of the adults, as they get too charmed by the language. That or they are trying to hard to be sophisticates.

Chausers Canterbury Tales is another great, and hilarious, example. One of the guys on trip is an eunuch who, as a result of the procedure, becomes homosexual. Yet all the uber right wing "fundamentalists" have no problems with this as it's "cultured."

Books are one of the few sources in which people can unlock parts of the cultural hegemony that we all get thrust into. Thing is, they take time and effort to absorb; Something, sadly, our generation has shown little interest in.