Fifty shades of grey....

[lauranna]

So it seems EVERYONE is talking about these fifty shades books, so I felt it would be rude not to check them out. Currently flying through the first one. Although they are no great work of literature I am finding myself addicted to the sex.

So......
Have you read them?
What did you think?
Why do you think this is the first erotic fiction book to go HUGE?
(a couple of my friends who have particularly dull sex lives read it and loved it)
Do you think there will be a massive increase in people getting involved in the BDSM scene?

I am loving this book (ok so everytime I read 'my inner goddess' I cringe but I'm willing to forgive that) but then I love sex. I'm curious to know why this particular work of erotica has such universal appeal?

 

[Totenkindly]

i haven't started them yet but was planning on reading at least one of them, so I could engage in the discussion on this end. I was out with girlfriends about two weeks ago for dinner and one pulled up the book on her cell and we were making one of the other women read excerpts outline. (It was funny how quietly people read, I thought if you're going to do it, you should do it big!)

From what little I read up on the books, they were based on fan fic (Twilight?) and then expunged of all references to that trilogy, self-pubbed, then mass pubbed.

My guess is that not a lot of people are going to become true BDSM'ers, but there might be more dabblers since those truly interested just found an "entry point" per se, and the rest are just kind of living vicariously through the text.

 

[Fluffywolf]

People enjoy reading about things they would normally not dare experience themselves, it allows them to sense and feel their position in those stories without having to face any of the consequences one might have in real life.

I've been into a roleplay/writer's scene where that was particularly obvious and common to the point of annoyance causing me to quit the scene.

I've not read these books, but from what I've read from others talking about it, it's basicly all sex. I don't understand the concept of 'all sex'. I prefer intricate stories with intricate plots and character depth and if it naturally leads to sex that's all fine and great, but one does not skip content and get away with it in my book. umpyouup:

 

[disregard]

I've read all three. Such an incredibly good story. I can't wait to reread them.

It's not vacuously erotic, merely written for shock value, like I'd expected. It is a modern classic of a love story.

<3 fifty

 

[Totenkindly]

I've not read these books, but from what I've read from others talking about it, it's basicly all sex. I don't understand the concept of 'all sex'. I prefer intricate stories with intricate plots and character depth and if it naturally leads to sex that's all fine and great, but one does not skip content and get away with it in my book. umpyouup:

not even a teensy eensy bit?

What if i were reading the books to you at an expensive suite in London's Dorchester, while trailing one neatly manicured toe in the steaming bathwater?

 

[Fluffywolf]

not even a teensy eensy bit?

What if i were reading the books to you at an expensive suite in London's Dorchester, while trailing one neatly manicured toe in the steaming bathwater?

You won't get past the first page. Rawr.

 

[Ivy]

These books are awful. Why does anybody read them?

 

[Tigerlily]

I don't know, but I am sick of seeing facebook updates about it.

 

[Patches]

These books are awful. Why does anybody read them?

I'm with Ivy here.

Oddly, I was watching TV with my mother and a story about libraries banning this book came on. I said "I'm half tempted to read it, just out of curiosity." She left the room and came back with the book in hand, tossed it in my lap, and said "It's awful."

It reads like a poorly written Twilight fanfic. It's not well written, the plot was about as deep as a bathtub, and frankly - as someone who has been involved in a BDSM lifestyle - I found it to be an unhealthy relationship and a damaging image of a D/s relationship.

No bueno.

 

[Ivy]

I'm with Ivy here.

Oddly, I was watching TV with my mother and a story about libraries banning this book came on. I said "I'm half tempted to read it, just out of curiosity." She left the room and came back with the book in hand, tossed it in my lap, and said "It's awful."

It reads like a poorly written Twilight fanfic. It's not well written, the plot was about as deep as a bathtub, and frankly - as someone who has been involved in a BDSM lifestyle - I found it to be an unhealthy relationship and a damaging image of a D/s relationship.

No bueno.

That's because it actually is poorly written Twilight fanfic.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/fifty-shades-of-grey-wayback-machine_b49124

 

[Jaguar]

I was watching TV with my mother and a story about libraries banning this book came on. I said "I'm half tempted to read it, just out of curiosity."

That's what happened with B.E.E.'s American Psycho in 1991. There were stories circulating that some bookstores weren't going to carry the novel due to its graphic violent and sexual content, so people ran out and bought it because of the curiosity factor. No doubt, it pumped up the sales figures.

 

[Such Irony]

I am loving this book (ok so everytime I read 'my inner goddess' I cringe but I'm willing to forgive that) but then I love sex. I'm curious to know why this particular work of erotica has such universal appeal?

Honestly I have no idea why it has such appeal. It's not like this is the first erotic fiction to come out. Many erotic fiction titles have come out that are probably better written and they have not gotten the attention that Fifty Shades of Grey has. I suppose alot of it is just being in the right place at the right time or the author happened to know the right people in promoting the book?

I normally avoid this sort of genre but I am kind of curious about this book. Maybe just to see if it deserves all the hype it's getting. I work in a library and my library has an extremely long waiting list. We definitely aren't banning the book like some libraries are. The waiting list is so long that unless the library orders more copies, if you requested it today, you would wait about a year to get it. I'm not kidding.

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

Keep hearing about this, it's a book, right?

I'm thinking, how can a book have sex scenes with music that's now shot up to the top of the Classical charts here?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...des-Grey-makeover-make-Jane-Austen-blush.html

 

[Wolfie]

In one of my creative writing classes someone said it's like an adult Twilight where the virgin's first time is anal? I didn't look up, needless to say, but I have heard escalating tales of its magnificence.

 

[CrystalViolet]

I've been avoiding reading this book, but a work mate keeps treating us to descriptions of each sex scene. The funny thing is this particular work mate thinks I'm a prude. I'm not, i just don't want to hear about sex at work. A good friend who's just finished reading the trilogy, and is more balanced in her opinion, informed me I've read far more racy stuff, with out blinking a eyelid, so would find it rather tame.
It's not a book I'd specifically go to seek out, but the damn hype surrounding it holds people hostage, and I feel I have to go read it just shut people up.

 

[funkadelik]

Haven't read it, but I have listened to the Gilbert Gottfried reading and let me tell you...

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K1RcKJVbHA"][/YOUTUBE]

 

[funkadelik]

Haven't read it, but I have listened to the Gilbert Gottfried reading and let me tell you...

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K1RcKJVbHA"][/YOUTUBE]

 

[King sns]

I haven't heard anything about it except that it's just plain soft porn so I haven't bothered with it at all. (yet it appears that everyone is reading it despite their claims so I have no idea what the secret appeal is unless people are suddenly outwardly admitting they love romance novels.)

 

[animenagai]

Haven't read it, but I have listened to the Gilbert Gottfried reading and let me tell you...

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K1RcKJVbHA"][/YOUTUBE]

Argh curse you, girl from my drunk kitchen! I was about to link that

 

[disregard]

Word on the street is that they are looking at Emma Watson to play Ana