50 Shades of Grey - A Controversial Bestseller

The New York Times best-selling trilogy, 50 Shades of Grey has been deemed too risque for some libraries. Elsewhere, the controversy has only served to increase demand.

 The Christian Science Monitor reports that libraries in Georgia, Florida and Wisconsin have either decided not to purchase it or taken it off the shelf. But while Florida's Leon County Libraries have decided not to stock the books, they are hugely popular elsewhere in Florida. Pinellas County has 30 copies in circulation - but more than 650 people on the waiting list.

The Censorship Watch column of American Libraries Magazine notes, "If  libraries carry popular fiction—and classics, too, by the way—they have erotic content in their libraries already." Columnist Beverly Goldberg suggests that most patrons understand why most libraries prefer not to ban books from their collections:

The vast majority of reports OIF has had about the Fifty Shades series echo this librarian’s email, who said that in 12 years of service at one library “We had several requests for removing books from our shelves because certain patrons or groups found them offensive. We would explain to them that we were not in the censorship business and if they found certain materials offensive they didn’t have to read them but they do not have the right to prevent others from doing so.”

The trilogy is part of the Taos Public Library's collection.