In the Land of Erotica...

The next book selection that I read, I must admit, I read because there was A HELL of A LOT of fuss about it. I have stated before that my book snobishness generally makes me avoid books that become popular, but sometimes I get suckered in because SO MANY people love it, it must be good, right? This is initially what also led me to read The DaVinci Code, and if you have read many of my posts, we all know how that turned out. *puke*

50 Shades of Grey really caught my attention because I haven't really seen that big of a fuss about a book since the DaVinci Code. But what sets it apart from the DaVinci Code, is that 50 Shades is considered *gasp* EROTICA! Oh my goodness! The shame!

Now, I should mention my background on Erotic Literature. I have read some of them, more out of curiosity than anything, and they are terrible. When I worked at Coles, they were shelved in a subsection of the Romance section, but there is nothing romantic about these books. The ones I read (yes, more than one, but less than 5) were the equivalent of Harlequin romance books. They had series' called Black Lace and Blue Moon that were all basically pornographic. They were pornographic literature. There was no point to them except titilation. They are terrible writing, thin plot, and extremely graphic in nature. Crap. Absolute crap.

So why did I decide to read 50 Shades? Because of the popularity. There must be SOMETHING different about this book that TONS of people have read it, loved it, and recommend it to others. I don't think ANY other Erotica book has ever made any public bestseller list like this one has.

The genre of Erotica has not scared me away like, I'm sure, many others have been. This is because there are works of Erotica that are considered classics, or art. The Marquis de Sade wrote many poems, novels and short stories that have made him highly acclaimed... granted, in his own time he was institutionalized for it, but that's just because he was ahead of his time. John Donne is another person who wrote very sexualized poetry in his younger years... before he became a preacher...

The following is the review, I hope it clears up any other people that may consider reading it...

~*~

Oh. My. Lord.

Ok, I must admit, this book isn't quite as horrible as the other Porn-in-book-form I have read. It does have a bit of a plot, and it's not, basically, constant sex right from beginning to end. You have to wait until Chapter 8, more than 100 pages in before you get to any sex... but... oh my god. There is still a lot of sex in it. I may have blushed a time or two, but I have still concluded this book still is meant to be titillation.

I kinda get why all these women are in love with this book. It has the “romance novel” aspect to it insofar as that this virgin collage student is swept off her feet by a bzillionaire, and he buys her lots of stuff, and does some really crazy things to her in bed... So it's basically the writing quality of a romance novel, with a whole crapload of sex. But for whatever reason, I don't think many women would admit to watching porn (or in many cases, don't want to watch it anyway), but will admit to reading a book that is basically porn. And then recommend it to people!? Weird... Is this because reading is held in higher regard than watching films is? That somehow that makes this book socially acceptable? I don't know. I just don't get it.

I should also point out I have never read anything classified as a romance novel in my life. I think that this book or the Twilight series would be the closest I ever got. But I have a feeling this is somewhere in between the quality of a romance novel and Stephenie Meyer's writing. There was some depth to the characters (WAY more than in the book-o-porno I'd read before), and it wasn't as cheesy (most of the time) as I imagine romance novels to be, but there is some inevitable cheesiness... just not as bad... so... yeah...

So in conclusion, I would like to say, I completed reading this novel, but I have no intention of reading the other two in the series. I like books that I feel comfortable reading in a public place... this book would never left my house because it would make me feel like a creep reading it in public. So, so creepy.

(Just a short sidenote: I still liked this better than The DaVinci Code. The DaVinci Code tried to play itself off as a really clever book, when really I figured out what was going to happen, or what the clues were leading to CHAPTERS before the characters did. Plus the chapters were really short so that non-readers would think they were doing REALLY good by being on chapter 45 when that's only something like 100 pages into the book. Fifty Shades is exactly what it claims to be. An Erotic Romance. Plain and simple. If you like Romances, and you want something a little more risque, this book is perfect for you. The DaVinci Code is not for anyone. It's stupid. Don't read it. End of Story.)