Out of the Bedroom and Onto the Bookshelves

It’s everywhere. Books, magazines, television, internet and sometimes in the bedroom as well. We’re talkin’ porn here.

A thousand moons ago it was hidden in brown paper wrappers and slipped under the mattress. Now it’s totally out in the open.

Pornography is big business but let’s get down to brass tacks. Let’s talk about the written word. In literature it’s called “Erotica”.

Erotica has been around forever. Well before my time at least. Yours too.

Sex manuals, poetry, badly written fiction and classic literature.

Some prime examples, which by the way are all still available:

The Kama Sutra-come on…it’s the sex manual deluxe.

Anais Nin-her writings are unbelievable. An old boyfriend once gave me an edition of her diaries.

Erica Jong-ah yes…Fear of Flying, how could we forget this classic? I still have it on my bookshelf!

The Joy Of Sex and Nancy Friday’s books and of course Cosmopolitan magazine. These days even men are reading Cosmo.

And now we have 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James. I read all 3. Yes, I did. Why shouldn’t I? They sit less than 2 feet from my face at the cash wrap in my bookstore. Well, ONE of us had to read it. It was either that or The Hunger Games and since 4 of my colleagues read those…I decided to drink the poison and read 50 Shades.

OK…it’s not literary magic, but it’s a fun little story. OK, it’s a VERY sexually explicit story. Like half the stuff in there I never even heard of. People do THAT?? Holy crap.

I gotta give Ms. James a lot of credit for putting this stuff on paper (first it was an e-book) and selling it to the world. She has a great publicist. No, it’s not Anais Nin, but it’s a fast, fun read. I sell dozens of these a week. It’s very cute, really. Women are a bit embarrassed and then I tell them, pfft…EVERYONE is reading it. It’s true. I even saw a TSA officer reading it on the employee shuttle. A male TSA officer.

So last week I was visiting Mom in NY. There, in full view, on the coffee table was 50 Shades. After composing my thoughts I asked, who was reading it? Mom replied that she finished the first and was reading the second. I tried not to hyperventilate and I asked her if she learned anything. She said not really, She already knew all that stuff. Mamma mia.

Well, I’m not buying fur lined handcuffs anytime soon, but Christian Grey is quite a catch. He has his own helicopter and plane. That works for me!!

In the meantime, I’m back to reading better literature. If you need any recommendations, let me know!

Have a great week.