I'm not going to tell you how much I loved this book, or how much I hated this book, or how poor or amazing the writing is. To each his own. But why is it so popular? There are plenty of other books out there that contain explicit sex, even explicit sex plus romance; no reason that this one in particular should stand out. Except... Here's my theory. E.L. James has crafted (well, borrowed from Twilight) a fantasy where a woman receives relentless, focused attention from a (wealthy, handsome) man - and this goes on for 500-odd pages plus two sequels, with continued bliss when they're well on their way to child number two. Now, if you're a woman (mommy or otherwise), whose spouse/partner comes home from work and heads straight for the den and maybe hasn't told her she's beautiful in several years, that fantasy is going to have a pretty powerful draw. Every woman wants to be seen, noticed by someone. If real-life men were doing their job properly, maybe these books wouldn't be quite so popular.

Hachi Machi this book is awful! The character names are as imaginative as porn stars', Anastasia Steele, Katherine Kavanagh and Christian Grey. What 21 year old says "oh my" and "jeez" every half hour? The whole book is communicated via eyes; Christian's flash moodily (how does that work?), Ana is always looking at Christian through her eyelashes (try it, doesn't work). My favourite lines have to be where Ana is described as driving to "the headquarters of a global enterprise" and when Katherine "almost literally" falls off a couch. Gah! Anyways, no one is reading this for the story. The sex scenes are your average sex scenes - graphic with instantaneous orgasm (Ana has a boob orgasm. Apparently if you're not orgasming when someone touches your boobs you're doing it wrong), the BDSM is really quite tame (there's spanking and a riding crop) and overall if you want to read something that's sexy try Anne Rice's Claiming of Sleeping Beauty or any erotica short stores, they'll take you to the sex without dragging you through the impossible "romance" of two wooden characters. But I look forward to ripping this apart in my book club. We will eye roll with abandon.

I couldn't even finish this book. How did it get past an editor and get published? It is the worst writing l've ever seen inside of a book jacket.

I couldn't finish this book. It was so poorly written, the characters were boring, no substance to keep any interest, boring, boring, boring; don't waste your time.

Worst book ever, very weakly written and very repetitive.

A very third-class novel. Low literary quality. Repetitive. Unromantic. Unaesthetic. Boring. Waste of time. Very non- erotic graphic descriptions. I will never read a book of this writer. She has very poor imagination and story-telling sense.

I absolutely loved this book. It was so well written with all the emotional stages of each of the main characters personalities and their inner struggles as well as their struggles within their relationship. It was definitely descriptive in its sexual acts but if you are old enough, and mature enough, then it goes well with the book. I love how there is both the erotic part as well as the love part. The raw nature of the book is just unlike any book I have ever read. It sucks that E.L. James only wrote this trilogy...I wish she wrote more!!

I think you will ethier love the book or hate it. If you don't like graphic sexual content, don't read it. It's not everyone's cup of tea. I thought it great. The writing may not be the best, but it was a book that I could play in my mind as I'm reading it. I love a book if I could visualize it, and I could. I did fall in love with Christian even though he was completley messed up and a very controlling. But to be wanted that much by someone so successful and handsome....yup--- I think that is part of the hype of the book.

Honestly, as descriptive as it is, it is still and amazing book! Yes, it kind of bothered me reading the descriptive sex scenes, but that's just me. Personally, I think only those who are mature enough, should read this book. Also, if you REALLY love reading romance, then this book is a book i HIGHLY recommend! It is just an amazing book! I'm looking forward to reading book 2.

"...Oh my! ... my inner goddess ..." thought this book was such a piece of crap that I obeyed her mandate to return it to the library. Don't waste your time on this piece of faux-erotica -- it's more likely to put you to sleep.