Books

Please Stop Donating 'Fifty Shades' To Charity

by Emma Oulton

As if four books and a movie franchise weren't enough, Fifty Shades of Grey just got even harder to escape from. Unlucky residents of Swansea in Wales are going to seriously struggle to get rid of their unwanted old copies now — because their local charity bookstore is begging for no more Fifty Shades donations. The Oxfam bookshop has been so overrun with copies of the erotic guilty pleasure that they've even built a whole fort out of them, and simply don't have room for any more.

Phil Broadhurst, the owner of the store inundated with Fifty Shades , spoke out: "We appreciate all the donations, but less Fifty Shades and more Sixties and Seventies vinyl would be good." At the moment, the books are being brought into the store faster than they can sell them — and so they've had to hand over their piles of erotica to be recycled instead. Awkward.

The Fifty Shades books, while bestsellers, were not exactly praised by literary critics — and so it's very tempting to laugh at the fact so many people are desperate to get rid of their copies. Seeing as Fifty Shades was guilty of misrepresenting BDSM, romanticizing an emotionally abusive relationship, and playing fast and loose with the concept of enthusiastic consent, I don't feel too bad for not sticking up for it. And for comparing this whole situation to a classic Sound of Music moment...

If you are in the market for some erotica, if you want to brush up on the story before the second film comes out, or if you've just always wanted to climb inside a fort made of Fifty Shades books, you know where to look. The Oxfam bookstore in Swansea has got more than enough.

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