50 shades of shit?

Anyone who is anyone has, unfortunately, heard of 50 shades of gray. It is the fastest selling book of all time and has been read by almost every woman I know.

Having only read the first few pages, I am not fully qualified to write this blog entry, but there are too many good books in the world for me to waste my time reading any more than I have. I have however quizzed my educated and amazing friends about the book.

The few pages I read were pretty appalling. They could have been written by a teenager, to be frank. I know in a sex book, being well written isn't the top priority, but can't we have both? I wouldn't know about the way the book creates tension and suspense, but my friends have mentioned that it uses the same phrases over and over and over. Such as "she murmured," and "he murmured", can't anyway just speak at a normal volume dammit?

Now I don't find anything wrong with a dirty story, but I do find it poor taste to hear that people are reading them. I get annoyed if men post photos of half naked women on facebook and comment on them. I don't want to know if anyone, male or female, is off to watch a quick bit of porn. And to me, it's the same hearing people state they're off to read this book.

At a public event I went to recently (which involved children performing, might I add), the person hosting asked the audience if anyone had read 50 Shades of Gray. Plenty of older women shouted "yes!". It made me feel a little queasy. I don't want to know. I don't want people shouting out "has anyone watched porn in the last 24 hours?" and I don't want to know if people have been reading dirty magazines. I just don't want to know.

In some ways I am something of a hypocrite. I did show 2 Girls 1 Cup to some friends at Uni. If you haven't heard of it, it is pornography. It's not hot though. It's two women kissing, throwing up and pooping on each other. I didn't show the videos to people in order to turn them on though, it was to see if they could survive it. Plus they were all consenting... unlike this poor grandma. 

To sum up, I think it's a shame that the country has gone mad reading , when the book they're getting stuck into is so poorly written. I am sure there are sexy books out there written by hardworking writers, and if there aren't I guess there will be a whole host of them soon. I guess I'm also a little jealous that a book that is so crap it could have been written by anyone, wasn't written by me!

As a nation we should be celebrating and reading great literature. Literature that makes you question the way things are. Literature that changes your life. Literature that is unforgettable. Pointless and fad fiction is fine, but it shouldn't be the best selling book! I'm slightly dissapointed with us. A popular book promotes discussion and debate. The only debate this book is giving us is "is this shit or not?" or "do you like bondage?". We could be reading a book that invites us to question our society, or has ethical or moral implications, or means we have to discuss the way we treat our criminals. That would be more worthwhile.

Anyway, read 50 Shades of Gray, or don't read 50 Shades of Gray, it's up to you. Just please don't write facebook statuses about Waterstones needing a wet floor or anything like that. That's just grim.

If you want to hear more from someone with a similar view point to me: read here