Fifty Shades of Grey and Libraries

Some  may not consider it great literature and some libraries in the US have banned it, but there’s no denying E. L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy, now the fastest selling paperback of all time, is more of a blessing than a curse for the library world. It is boosting statistics nicely with more loans and more people through the door – some of whom would otherwise have little to do with libraries.

In this article from Stephen’s Lighthouse the infographic shows which US states have the highest number of readers of the Fifty Shades trilogy per capita – more in the north-east corner of the continent but that it is the southerners who like the books better. (Stephen’s article also shows that sales of other erotica titles are taking off rather nicely – take a look at the second half of that infographic).

This Guardian article about library loans in Hartlepool, England has statistics on their circulation of these three titles. Here are ours :

Fifty Shades of Grey – 6 copies owned by BMCC – 36 Holds

Fifty Shades Darker – 2 copies owned – 6 Holds

Fifty Shades Freed – 2 copies owned – 5 Holds

Now, I’m not sure if those lower numbers with the sequels mean that people aren’t persuing the sequels having tried the first, or whether not many people have yet finished 50 Shades of Grey and are ready to continue. What do you think?

If you click here you can listen to an article on Books and Arts Daily about how a Melbourne book group reacted to Fifty Shades of Grey.

And how about these three sisters? They find it all a hoot!