Would You Read These Books?
By Tia Goonaratna
The ‘revolutionising’ entrance of Fifty Shades of Grey opened up controversy that could give the Twilight series a run for their money…in pennies. The hatred vs the perplexing love for Fifty Shades of Grey opened up serious discussion talks of how not to treat a woman as well as high anticipation for the movie, which failed on so many levels with leaving bits out, I’m surprised they found bits to show.
Inspired by this world outrage, Goodreads, the number one website for bookworms, have opened up a new category in their lists – Books I Have No Intention of Reading. Whilst the Twilight has been the defending champion since the arrival of its movies, Fifty Shades of Grey made Twilight look like Shakespeare of ludicrous books.
So what books appears on the list?
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James takes the first place whilst part 2, part 3 and other related books such as Fifty Shades of Grey, Inner Goddess: A Journal appearing throughout the list. Now why do people hate on this, considering books on BDSM and erotica has been around forever? My reason is that Archie comics had better erotica than this book. Now I give everything a chance. I read everything, I watch everything. I never take someone else’s word for how good a certain book or movie is. Yes, I even read Twilight. Fifty Shades of Grey made me cringe with the thought that if people read this book in 100 years, what they would think about our generation. It was an abusive relationship made romantic.
There was nothing worthy of a plot here and could only be enjoyed by someone with a fetish – even they would think this is child’s play though.
Even though the first place was taken, Twilight gives a good fight as a series that people would never read. I remember reading Twilight and wanting to cry to get past each page. In the second book when Edwards disappears, it was a long monologue of why Bella had nightmares and how it made her feel, which appeared every 15 pages. When she finally stopped having the nightmares, she explained the nightmare in detail, which DIDN’T happen, and what she DIDN’T feel! It was exhausting. However, it must be mentioned that in the last book, when Bella changes, the game changes. The movie caught nothing of the awesomeness that filled the last half. Instead of whiny, pathetic and sad, we got strong, smart and hilarious. Yes, actually hilarious.
The rest of the list has appearances of Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Fallen, Immortal and even Infernal Devices (!) and Hunger Games. Funnily enough, it’s mostly series’ of books instead of standalones. Not that these books have been rated low, in fact most of them have 4 stars, but the plots are for acquired tastes… of 21st century teenagers. Who else would buy books such as True Love and You: Seven Secret Steps to Finding Your Edward or Jacob by Louise Deacon or The Secret Life of E. L. James by Marc Shapiro. Seriously, who reads these? Oh right… 21st century teenagers.
Oh well… let’s just keep supporting our Stephen Kings, Neil Gaimans and Mike Gayles of this time just to make sure we don’t leave a complete ignorant literary world for the generations to come.
