50 Shades
 

Anoree asked Danielle if she's read 50 Shades of Grey? I started it and got through about half the first book and got bored. I'll have to try it again and finish it this time.

A fast read, for an afternoon at the beach is, On The Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves.

e83 :eek:

Horrible book! I think it gives a bad name to the BDSM world. The writing was atrocious and repetitive.

50 Shades Of Grey
 

Thought you folks across the pond might not see this review from the London Review of Books. Part of it anyway:

...Before we get to the designer labels – and in this, like so much else, James has learned a lot from the Jackies and the Judiths, to say nothing of the Harolds – we have a female protagonist who thinks like the scullery maid in a Victorian wank mag. To say the woman in this book is submissive won’t cover it. She likes to compare herself to the heroine of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which is nice. But Tess has the whole of Victorian hypocrisy to contend with while Anastasia just has to worry – between delicious ‘humiliations’ – whether she’s got the right music on her iPod.

...He’s The Dominant. She’s The Submissive. But that’s not the end of it, because Fifty Shades of Grey has in store a further 300-page gala of repetitive sex, most of it – give or take a few smacks on the arse – completely conventional. I suspect the book has taken the world’s mums by storm because there’s no mess on the carpet and there are hot showers afterwards. Everybody is comfortable and everybody is clean: they travel first-class, the rich give presents, the man uses condoms, and everything dark is resolved in a miasma of cuddles. In some quarters the publishing phenomenon of the year has been called ‘filthy’. But that must be a joke. It is a litany of swelling breasts and spent individuals, none of whom would be terrifically out of place at the more modest end of Mills & Boon.

...In the absence of good comedy there is always the appeal of bad seriousness. Laughter arrives early here and it never stops coming – ‘in waves’, as the author might say. A great deal of fun can be had by noting the many comforts offered for a life of mild depravity: people in these novels don’t wear underpants they wear Calvin Kleins; they don’t wear sneakers they wear Converse; they don’t drink wine they have Pinot Grigio; nobody wears sunglasses they wear Ray-Bans; the girl doesn’t listen to music she listens to Snow Patrol. It’s not that having these things is at all unusual, but the specificity implies a desire much larger here than any desire people might have for kinky sex. They are buying the books because the books invite them to be submissive too, not to punishment, but to a 1980s-style dominance of money and power and products. (The word ‘flog’ has more than one meaning.) Soft porn marries money very easily, a wish for diamonds especially. The conjunction would not have shocked Anita Loos, who liked a breathless girl, though the ceaseless gasping might have brought her up short:

I learned about the book from a culture magazine on TV. I haven't read a single line - and reading Danielle's reaction probably won't ever.

In the report they discussed the book - or more precisely how that book might have become so popular and its polarization of US women. Some love it, some detest it.

While the coverage was quite neutral about the book itself, the female host of the culture magazine attested the book a very bad writing style.

I simply was curious whether Danielle had read that book, too. Apparently she has (or at least parts of it); question answered. Thank you! :)

For those who would like to see the report themselves, even though it's in German, here's the link: "http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1684414/"Geheimes-Verlangen"---Ein-Bestseller"

I'm really sorry that I bought the trilogy. Now it's like a Quest to get thru it. :mad:

ok well, I liked it, I know this is being controversial, and I don't wanna start arguments, but I really do liek the book :)

You and a lot of other people! :) I liked the first part that I read, then as I said got bored with it. Good thing we all have different tastes or life would be very boring!!! lol

e83 :eek:

I'm with Danielle on this one. Twilight meets soft porn.

I bought the first and second book together thinking that I would immediately start reading the second after I finished the first. I'm really not sure if I will though. I wonder if I can return it somehow (it is a Kindle book though).

you can only return kindle book up to 7 days after you buy them.

If you go to Amazon > your account > manage Kindle, you should see a list od the books you have downloaded..... on the right hand side of each book you have downloaded there is a "Actions" button if you clikc that.... it will give you an option to "return" the book if you are in the 7 days period... if not I don't know of anyother way... but thats not to say there isn't.

Sorry thats all the help I can give you on this matter :(

You did better the me. I bought all 3! lol

:eek:

Well that's more than I knew before right now. Thanks for telling me :)

I knew you were smart and sensible, and this comment about that crappy book further proves it. I scanned (okay, I read a bit) of my girlfriends copy of this book.....lets just say I lost a bit of respect for her that she seems to enjoy that type of transparent writing.

Hahaha....unfortunately I think that some women think that the series is an example of good writing. They just need to be introduced to new (well written) novels. I think that all the publicity the series received also caused a lot of people to get sucked into reading the books.

Did you return the second book or started it? :p

I haven't started the second book yet. I don't even know if I will or not.

I think you should read it may as well you bought it so may as well read it now :P also do you have a kindle or do you buy books?

I have a Kindle Fire (that Anoree bought me :D).

Im wating to buy the Kindle Fire HD when it comes out in the UK, I needs it lol

It reminds me of when the movie "Deep Throat" became so popular in the '70s. It was only slightly better than other porn movies of the time, but caught on and became very popular and the movie to see. Especially for people who never viewed porn before. Timing is everything. lol

The following is from Wikipedia.

"Deep Throat was glowingly reviewed by Al Goldstein in Screw magazine on June 5, 1972. It officially premiered at the World Theater[3] in New York on June 12 and was advertised in The New York Times under the bowdlerized title Throat.
The film's popularity helped launch a brief period of upper-middle class interest in explicit pornography referred to by Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times as "porno chic". Several mainstream celebrities admitted to having seen Deep Throat, including Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma,[4] Truman Capote, Jack Nicholson and Johnny Carson.[5] Barbara Walters mentions having seen the film in her autobiography, Audition: A Memoir.[6] Jimmy McMillan considers it to be his favorite film.[7]
The film's title soon became a pop culture reference, most notably when then–Washington Post managing editor Howard Simons chose "Deep Throat" as the pseudonym for a Watergate informant, many years later revealed to be W. Mark Felt."

I don't know who Jimmy McMillan is but I think it is hysterical that a porn movie is his favorite movie.

James "Jimmy" McMillan III (born December 1, 1946)[2] is an American political activist, perennial candidate, and Vietnam War veteran, as well as a former postal worker and private investigator from Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as the founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, a New York-based political party. McMillan has run for office at least six times since 1993, including in the 2010 New York gubernatorial election on the "Rent Is 2 Damn High" line.[3][4] He declared on December 23, 2010, that he would run in the 2012 U.S. presidential election as a Republican.[1]

Alongside Romney and co. Wow, he must be some sort of political masochist.