Did you read the books "50 Shades of Grey"? Did you like it?

Got 150 pages into the first one but couldn't finish as it had no storyline, incipid characters and just awful.

I kind of have the same thoughts as you do on the novel, but I'm also extremely bias since I work in a library.

I find a big reason why they are popular is because it is a smut novel geared toward women. It's kind of like porn. Porn has a storyline, but because this erotica has a storyline that is considered to be "concrete and like the plots in any other novel", that's why it's popular and is considered to be more "publicly acceptable". I mean if I walked around and discussed the erotica of some random author who only wrote the book solely for the purpose of smut, then people would just sort of shun me. But because Fifty Shades has an excuse because of the novel like plot, it's somewhat more acceptable.

That being said, this is my bias in seeing the series go out all the time. Other than that I thought it was simply just a normal erotica book, and I found the plot to be a cover up so it could be more acceptable for women to read. Another thing too is that a lot of women who read this book don't normally read erotica, therefore they think it's the greatest thing ever.

I didn't have a problem with some of the story line or sex...but, I only made it through half the first book because it was written poorly and was too predictable. I think the whole thing was some ladies fantasy she wrote down and forgot to edit or make more entertaining. My fave was the whole cumming multiple times while be de-virginized...uhhmmmm...well, I have never met a woman who even came close to cumming the first time. Then, there is the whole thing of, "WHY??" The main characters are very basic and there isn't anything but a few references to popular lit for them to stand on. I can't wait for the movie...JK!