No book has enjoyed as much popularity or stirred such controversy in the past few years as Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James. Beginning as online Twilight fanfiction, Fifty Shades of Grey (first in a trilogy; it continues in Fifty Shades Darker and concludes with Fifty Shades Freed) is essentially a kinky take on the traditional romance novel.Anastasia "Ana" Steele is a college student on the verge of graduation. When her roommate Kate Kavanagh is sick, Ana helps her out by interviewing entrepreneur Christian Grey. Christian is rich, handsome, powerful, self-assured, and leaves Ana completely flustered. Apparently she has a similar effect on him, as he begins courting her, from giving her lavish gifts (she mentions she's into literature; he sends her a first-edition Tess of the D'Urbervilles, worth about $14,000) to flying her to exotic restaurants to exchanging emails (on the state-of-the-art, not-yet-released laptop he gives her, of course).
