The Book Lady on 'Fifty Shades of Grey'

“Have you read this?”

The book we're currently asked most about at BookHampton: Fifty Shades of Grey. No, I haven't read it. No, I don't plan to. I read Anaïs Nin's Delta of Venus and Little Birds while riding the bus in high school, and Pauline Reage's Story of O in my college dorm room. I read the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy and Exit to Eden by Anne Rice (writing as A.N. Roquelaure and Anne Rampling) when I was in my 20's. I've read various erotic tales scribed by the ubiquitous Anonymous throughout my teen and adult life. Pardon me if I don't get excited about the latest Jennie-come-lately on the erotic scene.

This isn't because I'm a prude — far from it (see above reading list). I'm just bored with the vanilla bondage tales that are so thrilling to folks that have only recently discovered them. With Fifty Shades of Grey you have something even less original, since it seems that author E.L. James previously posted full chunks of her story on a Fan Fiction site devoted to the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. The story, “Master of the Universe,” was then “lightly edited” to remove any name or plot conflicts that would have resulted in a lawsuit from Meyers. Voilà! Fifty Shades is born.

(Irony alert: Twilight, a thinly-veiled metaphorical morality tale about abstinence, has inspired the sexiest movement to hit housewives since the Tupperware-type parties for lingerie and sex toys in the '90's.)

You don't need anyone's approval to enjoy Fifty Shades of Grey, or the rest of the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. Read them and let them add some spice to your life. I do hope that you'll look into some of the titles listed above, or ask your friendly BookHampton bookseller to make some recommendations that are original (or were at the time). There's a lot of garbage-erotica available online that are just a step up from “Letters to Penthouse,” so your experienced (and blushing) bookseller may be able to recommend erotica that will blow your mind.

Among other things.