shades of grey (and an explanation of sorts for recent silence)

So, I loaned my mom Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (see post). She started reading it recently and brought the book along to the hospital with her to read in the downtime before her shoulder surgery.¹ Today she told me that both the nurse there and my father were completely scandalized that she was reading the book and that she was reading it in public.  Even worse for my father is that she'd gotten the book from me.

Shades of Grey ≠ Fifty Shades of Grey

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron is zany dystopian fiction.
Fifty Shades of Grey is poorly written dominant/submissive erotica (or so I've been told).

My poor mother was apparently unaware of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon so I had to fill her in. While I acknowledge a similarity in the two novels' titles, this particular case of mistaken identity seems odd to me considering that they were horrified by seeing her read the book, rather than by her making passing reference to the fact that she was reading the book. The Fifty Shades books have very distinctive (and widely publicized) monochromatic blue-gray cover art. None of the various covers for Shades of Grey look remotely similar. And while the cover art on my copy isn't as colorful as some of the other editions', I can't imagine confusing the following -

And, just to be clear, while I personally have no plans to read Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels, I pass no judgment on those who do. I follow a "read what you like, like what you read" philosophy.  And it seems like the Fifty Shades books have inspiring many adults to read, which is a very a good thing.

n.b. The staff at your public library are not judging you based on your reading habits (unless, of course, you're the one "reading" The Joy of Sex in the men's washroom)² so go ahead and check out Succubus Blues, or whatever else floats your boat, without shame.

In any case, on to the parenthetical. It's been something like 2.5 weeks since my last post. I apologize for my silence.

Erratic posting is really a result of two things.  First, when you have to do something that you like (in this case: writing about books), it begins to feel more like work than like fun. Second, ever since we moved Russell and I have been sharing one computer at home. And by the time I've finished all the stuff I need to do on the computer, I don't always have the time or energy for writing blog posts. I have been reading even if I haven't been keeping my side-bar list updated³ and I do have a bunch of titles that I'm planning to review. My posting schedule will no doubt continue to be erratic at least for the foreseeable future. Please forgive me.

1. Surgery went well and she seems to be doing just fine.
2. No, I'm not joking. At a library where a colleague of mine worked part of the close-up procedure involved a trip to the men's room to collect The Joy of Sex for reshelving.  The joys of working in a public library.
3. I'll update it before I log out of blogger today.