50 shades of grey and a splash of colour

Well, just for something different I am going to write about what I have been reading.  Just over a week ago I finished the novel, The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan, I believe this was a first published book for this author and I would say it was a pretty good start.  It is a story about a young wife who on leaving New York with her new husband, on an ocean liner bound for Europe, finds herself on an ill fated journey at sea.  The liner, like the Titanic and at about the time of that ship's fatal journey, finds itself sinking.  The young woman, Grace, along with 30 or so others, manage to secure a place on a lifeboat and then they  must endure life in this lifeboat until they are rescued.  Quickly, a leader emerges, Hardie, a crew member who has knowledge of life at sea. Not all the choices the survivors have to make are popular. I found this story very well written,it is not just a story about what happens in the lifeboat but it follows on to deal with the aftermath and the consequences of one of the decisions that Grace had become involved in while in the lifeboat.

Now in the interests of research, I thought I ought to check out the first in the trilogy of books by EL James, 'Fifty shades of Grey'.  It is not a book I would normally be interested in, I thought it sounded as if it was going to be a bit Mills and Boon, a lightweight romance.  However, as all three of the books are leading the best seller lists I thought I would give one a try. Also, someone in my play reading class told me that apparently it is very popular as a book club choice, so maybe there was more to it than I first thought.  Well, I started it three days ago, and I am reading it on my ipad (thank goodness, so nobody can see the cover) and it runs at about 700 pages on my device, and I think I am almost half way through this morning.  Yes, I can hardly put the thing down.  For anybody who has been sleeping up a tree, and that was me until about 5 days ago.  This book is particularly targeted at women and apparently what women like to read about is sex, and not just 'vanilla sex' as the male protagonist says but the kind of kinky sex that at one time was thought only to be of interest to male consumers.  I think the interesting point is here, that women do like to read about this stuff, and especially read about it as opposed to viewing it, I would be very surprised if it would do as well on the screen.  It is of course pure fantasy and I can just imagine that all sorts of women from all stages in their lives are escaping their everyday lives while they delve into these books that come with no literary pretencions. In fact, I may just have to read the other two and report back of course.