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I just started reading this book..before I knew it I was on chapter 11!! I did find the first sexual experience VERY triggery, so I did have to walk away for a while and go for a swim.

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

Late to the party for this one.

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?

Okay, so I started the first book Thursday night....... I finished the second book last night and can't wait to get my hands on the third!

I have been reading the 1st book a friend had given it to me to read. I didn't know there were 2 more books!

What do you think of this picture?

Matt Bomer:

My BFF totally think this is Grey...

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

Nah... my Mr Gray has longer toussled hair. This guy is too pretty.

No. Grey is Matthew McConaughey ...

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)]

When I think Christian Grey.....

I think Christian Bale

swoon!!!!!!

Just finished the last book last night, sorry but, I thought it was the most poorly written book I have ever read. I grew so tired of the sex scenes and honestly I had to force myself to finish it. If I had to read "Mr Grey" Or "Mrs. Grey" (seriously?? they seriously call each other this ALL the time??) ONE more time, I would have threw up! Basically the sex scenes are the only thing that keep this book afloat, other than that, it had no core, no depth and could have been written by a hormonal 16yr old. I have heard it was a Twilight fan fiction but other than the fact that Edward and Christian are both males and Bella and Anastasia are both females, I could not find one single correlation between the two-nothing.I enjoyed Twilight a million times better, just a big waste of time, IMHO.

[This message edited by whensitover at 9:57 AM, September 17th (Monday)]

I read it a few months ago....and I agree with the last poster. Enjoyed the first book but sometimes I like to read things that are what I consider like "junk food" Fun once in a while but not in a large dose. It reminded me of the romance magazines my sister and I would sneak and read as teens....the men were usually rich and always handsome and there was some kind of scandelous activity but deep down the person was good and the would say think like "my inner goddess" or "his manhood" I read most of book two but then the predictability and silly sayings kind of got to me and I did not order the third in the series and doubt I will.

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 said no way would I read these books. I was the same about Harry Potter.

However my friend came to stay and brought the three books with her. I just had a little look, and was hooked

I really do not think they are badly written. I did not expect Shakespeare, just a "page turner"

If a film is made I cannot think who will play Mr Grey, although Matt Bomer looks good, although I have no idea who he is

Had to read it because the local library has banned it.

Trashy junk food book. If I have to read 'inner goddess' or 'don't bite your lip' one more time I will poke my eyes out. And please who gets an Audi for a gift after knowing someone just a few weeks and a helicopter ride really. And lots of other very unbelievable not very realistic type stuff.

In true junk food form, it's ok once in awhile but a steady diet of this stuff um no. Book one was enough for me. Sex scenes kinda got me going, but I enjoy reading erotica fiction. I feel sorry for real people actors in porn is why I don't look at it.

I read all three books in rapid succession, in large part because people were making such a big deal out of them.

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.

I read all three in rapid succession as a friend who is a journalist had asked me to review them for him. The big hype about the BDSM scenes and settings were overrated. The writer didn't do enough research into it to give credence to it's reality. Yes, play rooms and dungeons are a part of the scene, but in these books were not evaluated correctly, and something was lost in missing their point.

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)]

Yeah, but...

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)]

I have to say, I do like the clothes and have worn a corset or two in my time and may even have a riding crop and some shoes with 7-inch heels that I can barely walk in, but poorly written is unforgivable for me. I also read somewhere that CG comes off as personality-disordered (totally triggery!), which would stop me reading from jump. I've also read a fair bit of fetish material, and plain old material on people's fetishes, and it's always fascinating to me what turns people on. Bad pickup lines are not it and cheesy material does nothing for me. I started off in Romancelandia reading Barbara Cartlands, but I haven't read one in decades. I doubt that I could read one now. Cuz, I like, hit puberty and got laid. And having read a truly compelling book like Topping from Below, it's kind of hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

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)]

Went to Fall Festival at baby_v's school yesterday and one of the auction baskets the third grade had done was a "Date Night" basket and prominently featured above all other contents was the 50 Shades trilogy.

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

Like so many others, I read the trilogy because so many of my friends were raving about it. The writing was definitely terribly, though I did really enjoy some of the scenes. There were a couple of mentions of the Sleeping Beauty series...it really is much better! Haven't really read much good erotica though.

I was in the elevator at work like 2 weeks ago. There was a gal in there w/ her book, underarm. Then some kid walks in, that she apparently knows. He's like what are you reading?

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.

Okay, just stumbled upon this thread. I read the books quite a while ago and I agree with a lot of the comments about it being poorly written, etc. There were too many sex scenes, to the point where I would skim through them thinking, "Yeah, yeah another screaming orgasm, can we move on please."

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.