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So I read the first book. It was awful, in every sense of the word. It seemed like a terribly written Harlequin romance book, although I've never read one, they seem like they would be terribly written! I don't usually read fiction, so I'm probably a bit biased. I only bought it because every grown woman at work was yapping about it, only to be seriously disappointed. It really makes me question the IQ in America. This book SHOULD appeal to an older teenager or young adult, not 40 year old women. As a sidenote, the material didn't offend me in the least, just the pathetic characters, storyline, etc.
I got a link from a librarian's opinion of the series
recoveringenglishmajor (dot) com (slash) confessions (slash) ?p=41
Her bottom line on it is "In short, Fifty Shades of Grey is a romance novel with some not-particularly-graphic sex scenes (featuring milder language that what is found in most mainstream romance novels) and some mild BDSM.
In the link, the librarian went over the other books available compared to this "tame" one.
Anyway, wife said she's returning the book back to CostCo as she does not want the book around the house.
Wife did ask what BDSM was and I Googled it. Our discussion went back recalling the Human Sexuality class we took (different semesters) in college.
My take on it is not about the book writing skills of the author, but the "tameness" level of explicit BDSM makes it easier to broach the topic for conversation. And the hype or mass market or trending topic of it exposes it (that type of sex activity).
It's positive and healthy to have these adult conversations between couples.
Oh wife and I know the concepts of BDSM but the acronym itself had to Google. Actually, back in the late 80s, I think it was referred to as S&M. I guess over the 90s and into the 2000s, BD became part of it.
Is it about old women? And if so, why is society more accepting of that instead of if it were about young, nubile, perky, non-mommies? Remember several years ago there was some calendar of old women posing naked? The media went on and on about it, much the way they're doing about this book. But when it's fit, young non-mommies naked in calendars, society writes them off as 'sluts' and 'skanks' and 'tramps'.
Tem, I'm guessing you're pretty young. The calendar of old women posing naked was a fund-raiser and the old women, while naked, showed absolutely no personal parts. The hook of the whole thing was that cakes, and puddings and other objects were strategically placed. It was a thing of beauty. If it had been fit, young, non-mommies, Hugh Hefner would have seduced them into baring all in poses that revealed everything, including their tonsils, prompting people to call them names.
From what I understand, most of the readers of 50 Shades are somewhere between the fit and young and the old women of calendar fame. SInce I fall into the latter category, you can count me as one who is not reading it, but I'm up for a calendar if they need and October!
I'm trying to read the first book, but better-written and much more interesting books keep getting in the way. I'm just not a fan of sappy romance novels and this seems to be the epitome, with bad erotica thrown in. Everyone seems to be obsessed about the erotica part, which I just don't get...it's not like you can't do a simple Google search to find some! I find myself flipping through that part. It actually annoys me because it's written by a woman and supposed to be from the point of view of a woman, yet the erotica stuff all seems to me to be the stuff a MAN would want. Like, she just happens to looooovvve going down on a guy, oh, and guess what?! She's a virgin but can deep thr**t. Really?
I'm probably the one being accused of being closed minded. But again, I read excerpts of the books and a lot of information about the books. And that's what I used to form my opinion. I consider that pretty open-minded. If I could not get a good taste for the writing from the excerpts I read, I would have read more before drawing that conclusion. I still maintain the books are crap.
But I don't recall that I, or anyone else who criticized the books said that no one should be allowed to read tham. This happens so much here on CD and in any kind of controversy in general. Person 1 says "I don't like X" and Person 2 jumps in with "But people have a right to X!!!" They just assume that if people don't like something they must want to ban it. Perhaps they assume this because this is how THEY think, but it's not the case here.
Yes, the author had the RIGHT to write the books
Yes, the author has the RIGHT to be a terrible writer.
Yes, readers have the RIGHT to read these books.
Yes, unfortunately for me, readers have the RIGHT to rave about how wonderful these stupid books are.
Yes, the author has the RIGHT to all the money she's getting for writing poorly and getting millions to buy her books. I'm a big supporter of supply & demand.
But guess what? I also have the RIGHT to criticize the books, namely their horrible writing. And people like me have the RIGHT to draw conclusions about the people who LOVED these books and gush on and on about them in every conversation they have.
You read the excerpts and determined that the writing was crap. There are plenty of people who read and enjoyed the books that will agree that the writing is crap.
There is, however, a story line, if you can deal with the crap writing to get to it. If you only read sections, you are not able to evaluate the story line. With a book like this, it's either the story line that gets people, or the sex scenes. I don't think anyone is reading this book because of the phenomenal writing skill of the author.
SPOILER:
That being said, I thought the author was very, very creative with the way she ended the third book. She returned to the scene of the first meeting of the couple from the perspective of Christian. The three books were written in Ana's perspective, with the exception above. Not only did it show Christian's perspective at the beginning, it showed how far he'd come along the way.
I have to give her credit for that, it was a fantastic ending to the series. But, one that wouldn't be appreciated unless someone read through all three books.
I hear what you are saying though, honestly if someone did say that they thought the writing was excellent, I'd be raising an eyebrow and wondering....
Maybe the author rushed publication or something, a little more time with a thesaurus would have been appreciated.
I also agree with the poster that if a book gets people to read, I'm all for it. I like to see people reading and talking about books. That's less time we are watching television. If we were all reading on the treadmill, that'd be even better!!
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