Anyhow, all I'm gonna say is HOLY COW...not such a good book to read while still living under the same roof as STBXWH lol

Also I do have to agree that the heroin's lack of self esteem is irritating and her 'inner goddes' is going to make me snap too lol

Just started reading it last night.

The elevator scene in the beginning just about killed me, in a good way though!

Alas, it's just a book

Shit like that never happens in real life, right?

Don't keep dancing with the Devil and wonder why you are still in Hell.

It's all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits.

Matt Bomer:

My BFF totally think this is Grey...

[This message edited by JustDone at 8:44 PM, September 15th (Saturday)]

I know he is too old for the part. In my mind though he is the epitome of Grey.

I will not go see the movie, and I am totally against the movies. Either a sleazy porn or it will be so edited and cut it should be on the lifetime network, as a movie of the week.

[This message edited by booger bear at 9:52 PM, September 15th (Saturday)]

I think Christian Bale

swoon!!!!!!

It was a kind of fun "junk food" read. I also will read things like Archie comics or Mad magazine or the Enquirer....they are fun to read but not as a steady diet.....JMO

I was surprised that the book is as popular as it has become.

I was both interested and disappointed at the same time.

I was interested because there was great potential in the character of Christian Grey - seeing how he fleshed out as a person.

I was disappointed for many reasons.

1 - the writing was awful, horrible even. I hoped it would get better as the series progressed and the author found her feet (kind of like the increased writing quality of the Harry Potter books). It never happened.

2 - The sex scenes were pretty bland. For a book that was "scandalous" and supposedly about the D/s relationship it was all surprisingly vanilla after the first scene in the playroom.

3 - The final book was too fantastical. Nobody has that much shit happen to them.

4 - I started to really dislike Anastasia. What a wuss. I mean fine you want to be with a guy who is into D/s relationships ... either be a true submissive or walk away. But this half of the time being too strong willed to submit but then also being too weak willed to really stand up for what you want ... make up your mind chick.

5 - In spite of all of the potential to really turn C.G. into a multidimensional character the author took the past of the least resistance and made him just another KISA who starts out as a bit of a jerk but is transformed by true love.

It was too predictable.

And yes - the 'inner goddess' was kind of cute once or twice but after the 3rd or 4th reference it made me want to scream.

Anyway, the whole story becomes rather mundane and tediously predictable by the third and final book. Despite the beginning of the trilogy alluding to something more than vanilla to tantalise and tease the reader, it rapidly becomes evident that it is rather an immature attempt at a lop-sided love story, under the pretence of a knowledge of the BDSM lifestyle and it's connotations. Very sweet, but more comparable to the writings of a teenager than a woman with experience. In all, the writing was rather unexciting

[This message edited by Diva0702 at 4:28 PM, September 30th (Sunday)]

It's a romance novel, not a how-to guide, or lit fic. Her depiction fits right in with the depictions of BDSM all over Romancelandia.

In my experience, BDSM involves people who are not necessarily attractive doing things that are not going to play as romantic. For example, I once watched a very (very) overweight older lady stick needles all over a guy who was maybe 21 or so. Interesting? Sorta. Consensual. Definitely. Something that can be described in a way that even approaches romantic? Well...not gonna rule it out, but even if it could, it's not going to sell.

In Romancelandia, every single American city somehow supports a number of thriving BDSM clubs. Men can actually make a living being professional doms *with only female clients*. The clubs are gorgeous and expensive, as are the dudes. If anyone isn't gorgeous it's the women. There are a far higher than average number of overweight heroines in BDSM romance. Everyone wanders around essentially roleplaying as if they are actually living in a legitimate BDSM universe or something. The focus is on rules of behavior, rules of approach, etc.

Similarly, imagine how people during the Regency smelled. How their teeth looked. How the women had all their body hair. How there were actually only 8 dukes in England, excluding royal dukes.

But in Romancelandia, the leads bathe every day, the heroine notes his flashing white teeth, the hero notes her smooth skin, and there are like 20,000 dukes.

The appeal of BDSM romance and Regency historical romance is the same, I think. It's an imaginary rarefied world of its own where there are rules for how men and women relate. A man cannot approach a woman at Almack's to whom he has not been introduced, nor can he touch some girl that's wearing a certain kind of wrist cuff or whatever that book has set up. Mdom/fsub romance is so deliberately old fashioned and courtly. Plus both have very nice extravagant costumes. This is popular for the same reason I like to play video games just long enough to outfit my character: sometimes I'm just in it for the clothes.

So anyway, I think there is an extremely low chance of someone reading this stuff and going out and getting herself in trouble. For one thing, when she walks in and notes that the male population contains an alarming number of neckbeards, she will likely peace-out. If she stays past that she is probably serious, or at least really enjoys wearing that corset, which hey, how often do you get to wear a corset? You got Ren Faire and you got this.

[This message edited by ladyvorkosigan at 6:24 AM, October 1st (Monday)]

At the same time, I'm not a dominatrix, nor could I tolerate being a submissive. For me to set up my shingle and say, I have the clothes, and I can be bad or good, and I can talk dirty, and come up with some witty repartee, so I'm BDSM... I personally can't say that, even in Romancelandia.

[This message edited by veritas at 7:56 PM, October 1st (Monday)]

This has gotten entirely out of hand and must stop now.

She shows him the book, 50...

Who admits to reading it for one, to a co-worker (a dude; that she's not interested in, it wasn't flirty...) AT work?!

I've seen her in the breakroom reading since and I'm all like grossed out now.

But what I really wanted to say, is that this morning while I was making tea this book popped into my head. Ana liked to drink tea in the book, but "weak tea". It was described as taking a tea bag and dunking it in a mug of hot water. BITCH THAT IS NOT TEA!!!! It's not even weak tea, it's colored hot water. For some reason this annoyed me this morning and thought I would share with all you lovely people.