Hi there

I thought I'd make my first post into an explanation behind how this blog came to be. I read a lot, to the point where I'm rarely without a book. I'll read anything - young adult, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, cozy mysteries, chick lit, classics - you name it, I'll probably read it. I'd been toying with the idea of having a blog for a while, but it was a discussion on www.goodreads.com that spurred me on to create one. I couldn't see a gap in the huge selection of awesome book blogs out there, until a discussion on the idea of rating books got started on GoodReads.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think books should be rated, but I do think there should be a way of checking books for certain topics without having to read it. The discussion on GoodReads featured a lot of comments about the amount of recently published Young Adult books that have sex or swearing in. In the UK some of these books are marked as not suitable for younger readers, but it seems that is pretty unique in the world book market.

This debate got me thinking - why do book reviews rarely mention the content of a book, unless it has offended the reviewer? How come movies come with parents guides (on the IMDB), but books don't? This isn't just an age thing - there are some things I hate reading about as an adult(graphic violence, for example). So I decided to start my own blog. Like other book-focused blogs, I'll post reviews and random book-related musings, but I'll also commenting on the content of the books I read.

I'll be borrowing the categories from the IMDB for now as I'm not sure how well I'll be able to apply them to books, but they are: sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol and drugs, and frightening/intense scenes. I'm not going to be posting spoilers, just heads up for people who might find the content not to their tastes. I also won't be making any judgements about what should and shouldn't be allowed in books - I'll just be stating the facts for the content. I am keeping the right to comment in my review on what I personally did or didn't like in a book, and my ratings (in terms of marks out of 10) will be based purely on my opinions.

So, I hope you find the blog interesting and/or useful. I'm now off to read!