The best title...the worse book!

Even if you never read "Fifty Shades of Gray", the book of erotica for the young professional, you have surely heard the title!

I had my husband put this scintillating tome of bondage, surrender, more bondage and occasional body aches...onto my Kindle Fire. It sizzled there for a week before I decided I'd take a peek into the S&M closet of the heroine, to see what all the panting was about.

And there it was; erotic scenes and throbbing parts, smeared in a coat of highly varnished dialogue on sex, sex, sex! I was exhausted just trying to visualize the gymnastic prowess of the female protagonist and the unflinching machismo of Mr. Gray.

That was after I'd read only the first five chapters! I knew I would never last through the sexual hurtles surely to follow. I had this very successful piece of writing removed from my Kindle, which strangely, made it feel a bit more pristine when I watched the entire 100 seasons of "Nurse Jackie".

Oh sure, you can sit in judgment and say I'm being too harsh in my dismissal of this popular book, but it was, in my humble opinion, not written to the higher standards of some others in that same genre; works that actually fall under the category of "literature".

What, you may ask? I must confess to a paltry knowledge of books written in this style, but certainly "Tom Jones" (not the singer) comes to mind and naturally, "Lady Chatterly's Lover", oh, and let's not forget some of Chaucer's bawdy contributions.

I think so much in our society has been dummied down, almost to the point where you don't need to apply any imagination; things are just fed to you in easily digested doses...so much is reduced to pathetic pandering to the lazy reader, who can't work at using their unique and very human talent to imagine!

I want to honor the writer of any book. I know first hand, the hard work and dedication it takes to produce such a tangible proof of insights into the human condition. I just wish all that talent for making money could raise the bar a bit higher. We all need to avoid mediocrity in all its many forms and in its many shades of dull gray.

Just sayin'...