50 Shades

When it comes to fashion I’m usually a season or two behind. The same applies when jumping on the 50 Shades of Grey bandwagon.

The days of reading novels at one’s leisure disappeared out the window around seven year’s ago when baby number one made his appearance. The stack of books beside the bed grew taller and taller until I was forced to make a second pile, now equally high.

The lack of time, combined with the need to drink in every detail makes me the slowest reader in the world; The book which has made it to the top of the dusty pile only gets picked up at bedtime, by when I’m so exhausted I usually only get through one page.

Therefore one year on, I’ve finally finished the intense but intriguing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series (I’ll be surprised if the friend that lent me them ever lends me another), allowing me to start the controversial 50 Shades of Grey (which I had cheated and bumped to the top of the pile).

One week later and I’ve nearly finished.

It’s true it’s received a lot of flak for its storyline and repetition (the overuse of the expression “Oh My” makes me cringe more than the lewd acts themselves!) but I’m a sucker for good easy-read chick-lit (although I understand it’s proving popular with men too) and, like many readers before me, I’m finding it hard to put down.

This poses two problems: One – I can’t take this book to the beach to read because anyone who happens to look my way and notices the familiar cover will recognise it for what it is and – two – once I finally pick it up at night, the storyline is somehow managing to keep me awake until midnight, rendering me tired and grumpy the next morning when I’m woken by 6am regardless.

By the time you read this I will have finished and should be started on The Hunger Games trilogy (lent to me by the same generous but, at the time, oblivious friend).

If you haven’t already read it, it would be quicker to read yourself than wait for a review from me. Otherwise, I’ll give you my verdict in. oh, about a year’s time.