It’s true!
A hotel in the Lake District of England has replaced the Bible in bedside drawers with E.L. James’ supersonic bestselling BDSM erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. CNN explains:
Jonathan Denby, owner of the hotel, told NBC News he felt that in a secular society, it was “wholly inappropriate” to put a religious book in someone’s bedroom. He confessed the novel, which started life as Twilight fan-fiction, wasn’t his first choice of replacement. In fact, he hasn’t even read it. “I was thinking originally of putting in a book by Ayn Rand — Atlas Shrugged was my first thought,” he said, but “because everybody is reading Fifty Shades of Grey, we thought it would be a hospitable thing to do, to have this available for our guests, especially if some of them were a little bit shy about buying it because of its reputation.”
With Fifty Shades’ reputation of setting otherwise cooled-off housewives afire, this choice seems like a great way for Denby to draw attention to his hotel, and a first choice for couples looking for a weekend away to rekindle the fire.
What do you think of this hotel’s book swap? Is Denby correct in his opinion that the Bible is a “wholly inappropriate” choice? Is Ffity Shades any better?
Which would you prefer?
About Joanna Schroeder
Call me cynical, but I don’t think that this has much to do with anything other than a cheap publicity stunt to get international attention for a hotel. The supposed relative merits of the two books really has nothing to do with this.
That said, there is no comparison between the two. The Bible is so integral to Western art, society, and culture that you are verging on culturally illiterate without a knowledge of it, whether or not you are religious: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is just badly written porn.
Amen. The most telling clue for me was that Denby’s first choice was a different kind of porn: Atlas Shrugged. #pornforcapitalists
Porn strikes me as at least somewhat appropriate for a hotel bedroom. Let’s face it, if you’re going to read the bible while out on holiday, you probably already own a copy.
Well, at least he’s trading up from badly-written, incoherent, judgmental fiction to just badly-written, incoherent fiction.
Wow, I think the books are overhyped and the writing looks atrocious, but that’s kind of awesome. Love to see someone try that in US and A.
That’s hilarious. How long until they get stolen?