Books: Fifty Shades of Grey. A good example of a brilliant marketing campaign

Fifty shades of grey

Ok, I´ll admit it. I read the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. You can kill me now. But I´ve always thought that you have to test things if you are going to criticize them. Right? So, with that fact in mind, I decided to start reading the works of E.L.James. You might think I consider myself too culturally posh or demanding but, what´s this rubbish man? How is it possible that the woman has sold around 31million copies world-wide? Seriously? This must be a joke. The only thing that makes me feel better is that I got the pdf version of the trilogy and didn´t spend a dime on them.

I swear that I started reading the first book with an open mind. I´ve always liked romances and I was more than ready to enjoy reading the "latest literary sensation for women". Boy was I wrong. The book is awfully written, with flat characters that could belong in any cheap southamerican soap opera.

The male character, Christian Grey, is a perfect depiction of the American Dream (note the capital letters) He´s a beaten-up orphan who turns into a multibillionaire, by his own doing. The most handsome, smartest ever who knows how to fly a helicopter, drives super-expensive and incredibly fast cars, owns houses in all the cool places in the world and basically controls the world, his family and his relationships like any good old tyrant. All of this by the age of 27. What-evah!

The female lead is an insecure, inmature, protected 21 year old girl who lets him do as he pleases and bends to his will once and again but ends up "fixing" him. Seriously? Sorry, not buying it.

If only the sex scenes were what had been promised... It would make it slightly ok. But I just can´t get my mind around all those women, all around the world, that have felt subyugated by these books. I know the target was housewifes who yearn for some excitement in their lives. And sad lives they must live indeed. I just can´t believe that there are so many unsatisfied housewives who dream of  being turned into crawling messes yearning for a good old spanking. Let´s be serious!

And don´t even get me started on the frequency of the sexual encounters. I just can´t see how Christian would have enough time to lead his company, take part in all sorts of important business meetings all around the world, solve every crisis possible, let alone have time to eat and sleep if they´re having ravishing sex 10 times a day. At least.

The writter must have felt the same way because by the time we´re through the second book she seems to be tired or out of ways of describing the same thing once and again and brings it down to two or three line descriptions.

Obviously, as it could be expected, by the end of the third book every problem is solved and Christian and Anastasia can be happy together forever (in their mega-mansion with their mega-spectacular car and supersonic plane) Again,  not buying it. It´s all so perfect that it makes me cringe. It feels completely taken out of a very bad Hollywood movie. And I wonder if that wasn´t the writter´s intention after all.

Hollywood has already smelled blood and tonges have started wagging about who would be the perfect fit to play the role of Christian Grey. Some names have been put on the table but nothing has been confirmed so far.

Matt Bomer

Regarding the male lead rumors talk about Henry Cavill, Alex Pettyfer, Ian Somehalder, Ryan Gosling and Matt Bomer. For the female lead the name of Keira Knightley has been mentioned.

Henry Cavill

Ryan Gosling

Ian Somehalder

So, have you read the book? What did you think of it? And here between us, wich of these hotties would you prefer?