Fifty Shades of Grey - EL James

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

Fantasist & Futurist
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So I picked up a copy of this in the charity shop, as part of my drive to read best-selling books.

Only finished the first chapter and didn't have a problem with it at all - much better than the head-hopping and pouting in the Nora Roberts I tried.

Additionally, I know it's reported that this began as Twilight fan-fiction, but IMO it's obvious Fifty Shades of Grey was inspired by it, not least the dynamic of an awkward young woman meets powerful and potentially dangerous man.

I know one chapter isn't much to judge a book by, but so far I've finding it a slick and easy read, and am actually enjoying it so far. Then again, I did like Twilight, too. :)
 
Never finished volume 1. I got about 2/3's of the way through until it just became too unbelievable. And I never got to the S&M that the series was famous for. I suspect you'll like it less as you roll through it.
 
I did the same thing, also in an effort to interrogate bestsellers. The only commonality between this and other mega successes like Twilight and Harry Potter that I could see is a big element of wish-fulfilment. Seduced by a handsome billionaire! Seduced by a handsome vampire! The hero basically acts as a vessel for the reader's complicity in what are fairly universal desires. Perhaps if I wrote a book about someone being seduced by a handsome billionaire vampire...
 
Wruter said:
I did the same thing, also in an effort to interrogate bestsellers. The only commonality between this and other mega successes like Twilight and Harry Potter that I could see is a big element of wish-fulfilment. Seduced by a handsome billionaire! Seduced by a handsome vampire! The hero basically acts as a vessel for the reader's complicity in what are fairly universal desires. Perhaps if I wrote a book about someone being seduced by a handsome billionaire vampire...
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didn't realise that Harry Potter had been seduced by a handsome vampire? Obviously I'm not really looking at fanfic :whistle::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
By the 5000th time she gasps and bites her lip and invokes her inner goddess, you'll be over it. Some things just can't be un-seen, but the writing in those books made me want to bleach my eyeballs and brain to try anyway. I skimmed through to find the S&M, so I wouldn't have to read the rest to get there, but those bits didn't impress me either.
 
My bookshop said it was obviously media hype. They said massive burst of sales and then it went over a cliff.
He said genuinely popular books sell for years.
 
Brian Turner said:
It'll be a long time before anyone else beats its record.
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An outlier due to media hype. It may not sell very much more compared to what it did sell. He didn't say it didn't sell well. He thinks books that sell in a burst and then don't sell are due to hype, not genuine popularity.

It's not worth reading that kind of book to see why it sold. It was "lucky promotion", nothing intrinsic to the book. I couldn't believe the amount of coverage on BBC radio.

I too often pick up "popular best sellers" I'd not otherwise be interested in, if they are free or 33c in the Charity shops. The sheer volume of some titles is both a reflection of how many sold, but also how 'loved' they are. Hardly any "Harry Potter".
 
For some unfathomable reason, Mrs h bought and read all 3 of these.
Afterwards I took them, along with a pile of used airport novels, to put on the WRVS charity bookstand in the foyer of the oncology department in my local hospital. The EL James books disappeared within a day. Some of the other stuff was still hanging around weeks later. Read into that what you will.
 
I've read TWILIGHT. It was okay for a YA book (except for the glamourising of abusive behaviour bit).

Not about to read 50 Shades of Grey in its entirety after reading extracts from it that made me go: "Huh? How on EARTH did this get published? And was the editor sleeping on the job?"
 
I guess when everything else is read and there's only one book left, I may give it a try. But I doubt it.
 
Not read it.

But, as Friends of The Local Library, we collect donated books from the public in general and sell them on the market etc to raise funds for the library. Fifty Shades would appear to be the book that everyone wanted to read but nobody wanted to keep - we're inundated with copies.
 
dask said:
I guess when everything else is read and there's only one book left, I may give it a try. But I doubt it.
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in the future when society breaks down and there is no more toilet paper available we'll be grateful ;)
 
The Bluestocking said:
TWILIGHT. It was okay for a YA book
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Yes, I was surprised.
Though Bella's only issue isn't clumsiness. Certainly more narrator than heroine.
I read some romance too, even some of the harlequin / Mills & boon. I read very widely. Lots of kids books as well. But 50 shades isn't on my list (which I'm slowly updating at Goodreads).
 
The Bluestocking said:
I've read TWILIGHT. It was okay for a YA book (except for the glamourising of abusive behaviour bit).
Click to expand...

This is what bothered me about them (i havnt read them, my sister in law told me about the wierd and abusive nature of the relationships)
My wife had the 50 shades books given her, i picked bits at random to read, odd page here and there, and to be honest it is just pornography. My wife hated it.
I wonder though, if it had been written by a man, it would have been slammed as the most misogynistic glorification of the evil patriarchy ever. But it wasn't, so vast amounts of women love it.
 
Quellist said:
But it wasn't, so vast amounts of women love it.
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I wonder what percentage of all women and what percentage of women that bought/borrowed it (what percentage didn't finish it)?

I like science :)

Quellist said:
if it had been written by a man, it would have been slammed as the most misogynistic glorification
Click to expand...
Wait ... Fifty Shades or Twilight?
 
Fifty shades. It is basically domination fantasy isnt it?
 
Quellist said:
It is basically domination fantasy isnt it?
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Twilight series sort of is.
I presume Fifty shades is but, I'd gathered the impression more explicit S&M and sex.
There isn't really anything more than psychological domination and cuddling in the Twilight series till the honeymoon,
then really nothing explicit after, though the pregnancy is gruesome
.
AFAIK, no paranormal stuff in Fifty shades and 'small f' fantasy as in bizarre wish fulfilment rather than "Fantasy".

However I've no plans to read it. Even the "Twilight" series was outside my "comfort" zone. I got them all at once for a mix of 33c and 50c. Read in one weekend. I'd probably not have bothered if I'd known how some of the later books would go, but it was better than I thought. I'd not have bought them new, nor will I bother to read any more by her. But Twilight series wasn't that bad, in writing or content, just not my cup of tea. I've kept them. IMO, better than Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, G.R.R. Martin or Philip Pullman. I can't think why I'd want to read Fifty Shades rather than say a "proper" romance story.
 
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