‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Banned From Florida County’s Libraries

Florida’s Brevard County has officially banned the hit book Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, after reviews labeled the book as erotica.

Don Walker, spokesman for the county government, stated that:

“We felt the book didn’t meet the criteria for what we put on our fiction shelf, that being because of the perceived pornographic nature of it.”

The decision to remove the trilogy from library shelves was made on Thursday evening, and has initiated a review of the process the library goes through in selecting books to be placed on the shelves for checkout.

Walker stated that 19 copies of the trilogy were ordered for the county’s 19 libraries, and that many people were on waiting lists to check that popular book out.

After national reviews of the book came out though, the library system’s director decided that the copies would not be available any longer, after all 17 were checked in again. Some of the copies have yet to be checked in.

Walker did admit that “We know it’s a national phenomenon,” however the nature of the book was unacceptable to be placed on library shelves.

Fifty Shades of Grey is the first in a trilogy involving Anastasia Steele and a young business magnate, Christian Grey’s evolving romance. The book was originally a fanfiction about Stephanie Myers’ popular Twilight series, which later evolved into its own story. It was originally called Master of the Universe, and posted with her penname “Snowqueen’s Icedragon.”

Its contents were criticized by fanfiction site users, causing James to remove the story and post it on her own site, fiftyshades.com. The original story was taken down right before the book’s release.

Book two is titled Fifty Shades Darker, and the final book in the series is called FiftyShades Freed.

Check out the video below to see Ellen DeGeneres reading Fifty Shades of Grey:

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