Monday, 13 August 2012

50 Shades of....oh never mind.....

Unless you've been living under a rock for this year then you'll know all about 50 Shades of Grey.  You don't even have to have read the books to know what it's about.  Anyone who has read them will tell you about them.  I was on holiday not long ago and watched a woman on the plane in the seat next to met read nearly the whole book on the flight and then 2 of the air hostess have a copy to read while on their breaks.  The books are everywhere and you can't have a day go by in London without seeing someone on public transport or the office with a copy of one of the books from the trilogy.  I have not read this book.  I don't plan to either.....not that I have issues with the content but have heard from many friends and family that it isn't exactly the best written book and I'm being selfish with my reading......I don't have time to read books I've been told aren't well written.  Maybe one day but not right now.

It's even now officially the biggest selling book of all time.  For serious.  Smut sells.

 However it's not a new idea and thus the reason for my blog post.  I wanna tell you about the fact that 50 Shades isn't anything that new really.  When I was about 15 my friends and I had a secret book group at school.  It was the Secret Sidney Sheldon Book Club.  I was given one to read by my mum (which is so weird considering the sex talk and description in it) and then lent it to a friend and then we were all hooked.  We'd be found all reading copies before class and passing battered copies under the desk before lessons started.  We couldn't believe people wrote stuff like that.  It was addictive thriller/mystery type adventures with female Main Characters and there was ACTUAL sex in them.  (Side note: I went to an all girls school so we had limited daily interaction with boys so these books were like gold dust)

I noticed one of my lovely blogger tweeters mentioning Sidney Sheldon last week and it was a major flashback and then something happened.  Other bloggers and authors started replying back and forth with us all with their own '50 Shades' type books.  It seems this isn't a new thing but maybe 50 Shades of Gray have just hit new heights compared to the the Jackie Collins and Sidney Sheldon books because of the kinkier nature to them.  I don't know but even though I still refuse to read 50 Shades I can completely understand the addictive nature of them and why EVERYONE seems to be reading them.  It's easy access taboo and smut and it's selling books in stores.

 I don't really know where this post is going or what I'm trying to say really but it just made me smile remembering that even though everyone seems to be balled over by this new book series it's just THIS generation's lady smut (thanks to Keris for that term).  

Fingers crossed it makes more people read ALL kinda books and helps the publishing industry grow and grow too
Posted by at
Labels:

2 comments:

  1. My mum was a total non-reader before 50 Shades (If you exclude Ok mag!) but she is now open to reading books (she is starting with Twilight) so that's one good thing about the series.

    I wonder how many babies will be named Christian in 7-9 months?

    Sam

    (I haven't read the 50 shades books)

    ReplyDelete

  2. I also refuse to read this series! I did however, read a few free sample chapters and I felt the writing was very poor! I feel there are much better authors out there who know how to really write. Working in a Waterstones I can't tell you how many of these books we have sold, we are asked for them over 100 times a day!! Honestly, I'm sick of being asked for them.

    That said, I don't feel I could write a book so my hat goes of to EL James and the money she has made!! And another good thing to come out of this series is that people who have never read before are now reading and coming back to the store for more books by different authors. That I love!!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)