Mommy Porn: Naughty E-Book Series a Hit with the Playground Posse

Sarah B. Weir, Shine Senior Writer
What's on your bedside table?
What's on your bedside table?

Not since women were stealing theirs daughter's Twilight books for midnight reading binges, has a series of novels so steamed up the mommy set. The New York Post reports that the X-rated "Fifty Shades" trilogy, by E.L. James,British television executive and mom of two, has already sold 100,000 copies and scored James a spot on the NY Times bestseller list.

"Fifty Shades of Grey," the first installment, has become know as "The Book" around school pick ups on New York City's Upper East Side. "I couldn't put it down," says NYC mom Michele Yogel, 33, "I'd be sitting on the couch at 7 a.m. with my two kids while they're watching cartoons and drinking milk and I'd be reading it on the Kindle app on my phone."

While Stephanie Meyer's books were mainly about the thrill of the chase and the anticipation of the kill, James's series is more of a full frontal assault. Unabashedly not YA, these books are part of a genre called BDSM (or "bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism") fiction. In the first novel, the kinky anti-hero, billionaire Christian Grey, turns his young paramour Anastasia Steele into a submissive sex slave. While the next two volumes chronicle their deepening love, the Post reports that "flip to a random page…point to a line and you're basically guaranteed to land on a graphic, adjective-laden sex scene…."

Reportedly, first-time author James was herself a Twilight fan when she stumbled on BDSM fiction and "found it really hot." She's not the only one. "Kids have never seen their mothers reading so much," says 42-year-old Allysa Goldman. Goldman, Yogel, and other bibliophiles agree that its adding spark back to "everyone's marriage."

And dads are getting in on the act as well. "That's going to be the newest thing in real estate," laughed a NYC bigwig who wanted to remain anonymous, "a media room and a red room of pain."

While the series is readily available as an e-book, the first novel's print edition is sold out. A paperback copy is currently listed on Amazon.com for an astounding $999.99.