50 Shades of Grey

[Jan in CA]

I don't have Kindle. I have NOOK. But I do the same thing. I download all this stuff when I haven't even read what I have. Nook does have some great free ebooks. Some of them are from name authors like Agatha Christie just to whet your appetite so you'll buy other books in their series. Some of them are self publishing authors that are very good.

If you're on FB they probably have similar pages for free or low cost books.

BTW I got on FB because of my kids originally, but discovered thet have some awesome yarn/knitting pages. I've gotten a few great deals on yarn that were advertised through FB and when not they have some great posts anyway.

[fatoldladyinpjs]

I haven't read as much as I should have lately. The one I get addicted to is Stumbleupon. It's like a search engine. People who like crafts, knitting, or whatever, put their favorites in the search. It's like randomly shuffling cards. You click the Stumble button and see what comes up. There's been some really good crochet sites. It's easy to get lost in those. Haven't tried the knitting one yet. I'm sure if I do I'll be there for days. They'll probably have to pry my fingers off the keyboard long enough to eat so I don't waste away. Yeah, right. I'm a plus size. Like that's really going to happen.

[cryaegm]

Well I have read all 3 books and I basically think it just depends on how you want to view them. Some are saying they are badly written but I think the author did a good job or they wouldnt of printed them.

She self-published first. Then after the books became popular and started selling really well, Random House's imprint picked the books up and gave her a book deal. It's the same way how Amanda Hocking got a publishing deal.

The relationship between the MC (main character) and Christian, through the MC's eyes, comes off as abusive. And I think that's the main thing that turns me off from the books, besides it being a Twilight fanfic. On Dear Author, they got a hold of Master of the Universe (the original title of the fanfic before she changed it to 50 Shades) and checked it with 50 Shades; it was pretty much the same word for word with a few changes here and there. They used the program colleges use to find out if essays are plagiarized--came out as 89% the same.

Personally, I don't like them. They rub me the wrong way (not the BDSM theme). I don't write erotica (I write YA mostly); however, I agree with erotica author Jennifer Armintrout's recaps of the book.

EL James does a lot of cliches as a writer, especially chapter one where she starts off by describing her looks in the mirror. That's considered a big no-no in the writing community (another big no-no is starting off the book with a dream). There's exceptions where it works, but this isn't one of them, IMO.

[KnitPrincess]

A friend of mine read them and said they were good so I gave them a go...and I reccomended them to another friend who enjoyed them as well... I have to admit they were very different from the books I usually read...I am more of a Nicholas Sparks reader...or a mystery reader lol

[ArtLady1981]

Oh I feel for you. A Ravelry friend recommended a book to me recently. Slammerkin. An old world setting about a girl that gets sent to the streets at a young age.

UGH.

The book was utterly awful. She turned out to be a total trainwreck. The book was way too focused on the functionings of the human being. I thought I'd scream if I read the word 'sticky' ever again.

I posted a review on Amazon about this disgustingly disappointing book. (I bought the Kindle version). I'm just now beginning to get over it.

It's a trap. A graphic movie has an R rating. So if you see too much, you were warned. However, this book has no rating R or X. Another trap...you're reading along, out pops the filth...you move on...hoping that will be the last of it...and OUT IT POPS AGAIN, and again...but now you're invested in the characters. You want to follow it along to see how their life turns out. I didn't need to read the details about their personal functions. Ugh.

Here's a thought: we all know that the characters in a book, or in a movie, all go to the toilet. Everyone goes to the toilet. #1 and #2. Do we really need to see it? Do we really need to hear it? IMO, we don't need to see or hear human sexual functions either.

So when I was reading the reviews for 50 Shades of Gray...I still had Slammerkin well in mind...and I OPTED OUT of purchasing 50 Shades of Gray.

Now I can see that I was wise to PASS. Thanks for posting your review!

[Christinechrstms1]

Oh I feel for you. A Ravelry friend recommended a book to me recently. Slammerkin. An old world setting about a girl that gets sent to the streets at a young age.

UGH.

The book was utterly awful. She turned out to be a total trainwreck. The book was way too focused on the functionings of the human being. I thought I'd scream if I read the word 'sticky' ever again.

I posted a review on Amazon about this disgustingly disappointing book. (I bought the Kindle version). I'm just now beginning to get over it.

It's a trap. A graphic movie has an R rating. So if you see too much, you were warned. However, this book has no rating R or X. Another trap...you're reading along, out pops the filth...you move on...hoping that will be the last of it...and OUT IT POPS AGAIN, and again...but now you're invested in the characters. You want to follow it along to see how their life turns out. I didn't need to read the details about their personal functions. Ugh.

Here's a thought: we all know that the characters in a book, or in a movie, all go to the toilet. Everyone goes to the toilet. #1 and #2. Do we really need to see it? Do we really need to hear it? IMO, we don't need to see or hear human sexual functions either.

So when I was reading the reviews for 50 Shades of Gray...I still had Slammerkin well in mind...and I OPTED OUT of purchasing 50 Shades of Gray.

Now I can see that I was wise to PASS. Thanks for posting your review!

The remarks that we don't read that the characters are going number 1 and 2 is a good point. There are things that should be left out of a book to make it more tasteful/ give it a bit of class.