Did you read the 50 shades of grey books?

[Justagirlwholovesaboy]

I can’t bring myself to watch the films, are they worth a try?

This never fails to make me chortle

Dear god no.
jennytrout.com/?tag=jenny-reads-50-shades

It's like a manual for anyone who wants to get kicked off their local BDSM scene.

I mean that's leaving aside the appalling writing. If you put the author next to someone who churns out crap for Take a Break magazine, you'd give the Nobel prize to the TAB hack.

No to the books and no to the films. No desire to either.

The books are poorly written and the author doesn't know anything about how bdsm should work. I've only seen the first film but don't especially want to watch the others. Maybe if I'm very bored one day

I bought the first book, must have been right when it came out because I’d not heard of it yet.
Based on the blurb I thought it was going to be an intense stalkery kind of thriller.
Hadn’t even got two pages in and I remember thinking wtf is this? The writing is absolute junk.
So I googled, kicked myself for not having done that before I actually paid money for it and never looked at it again.
It’s not even the subject matter, the writing is far more offensive than anything else.

I enjoyed the books as did many of millions of people - I think you had quite a skewed view on here 😀 it’s not well written but neither does it puport to be - not everything has to be Jane Austen to be enjoyable. The first film I found enjoyable, just tried to watch the second film on Netflix and found it boring as hell so gave up after 20 mins.

@bitoffun
That's really funny

No. Life's too short.
As a pp has said, it seems to be the most common book on charity shelves. That, and Twilight. Which is also sexist shite.

I read the first book because many female friends and acquaintances raved about how romantic it was , that he was 'a broken soul' and she could save him.

My view was that if someone offers expensive meals and gifts, and then asks 'can I hurt you, it's how I get my kicks' the only thing to do is to run like the wind and not look back.

Some of 'em still find it romantic. Sigh.

Not read the books but have seen two of the films. Enjoyable nonsense.

I've seen all the films and read all the books. The films are a bit naff, weak. Dornan was better in The Fall. Johnson acts and she saves it from being utterly dire.

But what were we expecting? The books are so poor, so poorly written. It was just luck that James made money from her twilight hobby.

It's just rebadged Twilight fanfiction written by somebody who I'd say was better suited to a different vocation, only she's made millions out of it so who am I to argue... I read a sample and had to check if I was accidentally reading a parody of it, and nope, it's just that badly written.

Struggled through book one, didn't like it. Hated the characters.
Tried to watch the film because I love Jamie but got 5 mins in and the female actor annoyed me so couldn't watch it. Didn't even get to any "good bits".

I’ve used it in writing workshops as an example of how not to write. The first film is absolutely hilarious. Jamie Dornan looks mortified throughout.

My mum bought the book for her 80 year old aunt who was in hospital. It was when it was first released so she hadn't heard of it before, and was unaware of the storyline.

She was absolutely mortified when she realised but luckily her cousin had intercepted it 😂

I've not read or watched any of them. I've no interest at all.

They are just a light read book/films, no worse than any other romance films

The books are badly written however have a good story line, nothing to take seriously about.

Not to bad for a book to have made over 500 million worldwide, so they clearly did something correct.

I read an extract of the first book when it first came out. It was so poorly written I just couldn't bring myself to read the whole book. Utter tripe.

The film is a right laugh and directed by a great female director. I've seen a lot worse films in my life.

Hauda - completely agree. I think there's alot of snobbery about these books, she's obviously doing something right

I’ve read all the books. They’re awful, but I have a personal rule that once I’ve started something I see it through to the end. That includes novels in a series.
I can’t stomach the film. If the books are that dreadful I can’t begin to imagine how dire the film is. And films are always worse than the books!

Cross "literary diarrhoea"

This. Exactly.

utter tripe hence why every charity shop has copies