AMARILLO, TEXAS -- It's racy, it's readable and bookstores across the country can't keep it on the shelves. The number one New York Times Best-Seller "50 Shades of Grey" by EL James was released to bookstores Tuesday in paperback.
"New, classified 'romance' novel for the ladies out there," said Barnes & Noble Assistant Store Manager Marc Robertson. "It has been getting major acclaim from the east coast heading westward. Just hard to keep it on the shelves."
But this 514 page, sexually provocative novel was being snatched up by readers before it was ever actually taken to print.
"It originally started as an e-book for the e-readers like the nooks and such," explained Robertson. "So, companies decided it was selling a lot of copies so they wanted to buy the rights and print it in paper."
Published in paperback form by Random House, "50 Shades of Grey" includes a scandalous plot involving a young, naïve girl who becomes sexually involved with a much older, rich man, Christian Grey. From one descriptive and erotic love scene to another, readers of the novel quickly created a new category for the steamy read -- "Mommy Porn".
"It's a romance novel," said Robertson. "It just happens to be one of the hottest romance novels out there right now. Sales have just been crazy for it. Requests, reservations, it's just insane," he added.
Although paper copies may be flying off the shelves of store across the U.S., some folks, like former Amarillo resident Reverend Winston Curtis and his wife, aren't thrilled by the extremely sensual nature of the book.
"I'm a person who believes in the First Amendment, but it's sad that this is available" said Curtis. "My father-in-law told his boys that stuff like this belonged in the trash and that's really where it belongs is on the trash."
"50 Shades of Grey" is only the first of the three in James' trilogy. The second book, "50 Shades Darker", will become available in stores in paperback copy starting April 16 and the third, "50 Shades Freed" will come out a few weeks later.
Barnes & Noble and all Hastings locations in Amarillo will carry all three books in the trilogy.
