Fifty shades of wayhey!

Reading that is.

Erotic sensation Fifty Shades of Grey has been selling out all over town as it continues to dominate the bestseller charts.

This is THAT book. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. The first in a trilogy by female author E L James, which has apparently become the fastest selling paperback in Britain since records began.

“It’s definitely been our best seller for the last month by a mile,” said Daniel Norburn, fresh stock control manager at Gainsborough Tesco’s.

“We have sold a heck of a lot. The second and third books are also selling well.”

Steve Smith, manager at WH Smith’s in Gainsborough, said they had not seen a book selling so well since the last Harry Potter.

“It’s doing really well, and so are books two and three.”

“People are coming in and asking for it and talking about it.”

At Retford’s independent bookshop Bookworm, assistant Gareth Pearce said copies of the book, which was first available as an internet download, were like “gold dust”.

“It really has been flying off the shelves,” he said.

Sales have apparently been boosted by women discussing it on Facebook and Twitter, and then dashing out to buy it because they don’t want to feel they are missing out.

Gainsborough library has also seen a surge of interest in the book and now has a waiting list.

Jonathan Platt, head of libraries and heritage at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “Like all bestsellers, Fifty Shades of Grey is proving popular with library users.”

“We currently have 147 reservations across Lincolnshire for the 14 copies we have in stock, and we have a further seven copies on order.”

“There are currently nine reservations for the book at Gainsborough library.”

But what is it about Fifty Shades of Grey that’s getting women hot under the collar?

Karen Currie, of Gainsborough, said she downloaded it on to her Kobo, which is similar to a Kindle.

She said: “I first heard about it on Twitter when celebrities like Kate Thornton were discussing it.”

“I thought it was really good. Every chapter ended in such a way that you wanted to start the next chapter straightaway to find out what was going to happen.”

“It didn’t take me very long to read it and I had no idea it was such a thick book because of reading it on my Kobo.”

“I’ve already started the second book. The story starts only a couple of days after the first one ends so it doesn’t leave much of a gap.”

“I’ve already downloaded the third book as well.”

In the interests of research I read the book too.

I’m no literary snob, but the clunking, repetitive writing just left me bored.

Do we really need to be told on every other page that Christian has grey eyes and Ana likes English tea?

After 40-plus years of feminism, I found it quite depressing that a story about male dominance should prove so popular.

I’d rather have a feisty Catherine Cookson heroine any day.