The Sexiest Books You'll Ever Have The Pleasure Of Reading

In 2011, people around the world were completely incapacitated by a literary phenomenon. I saw rows of mothers reading the book on sun loungers while their kids splashed in swimming pools on holiday. I saw people hiding the book's cover behind other books on the tube. I myself took the book out from the library and read it during a university orientation.

The book wasn’t particularly well written or original – in fact, it began as Twilight fan fiction. Still, E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey unearthed some ache we’d forgotten we’d had in this age of constant bombardment with sexual imagery. We see sex in movies and in TV dramas; it’s far more rare that we collectively turn to novels. Yet, with Fifty Shades of Grey, that's exactly what happened. The book encouraged people to be swept away into an erotic world that was partly composed by their own imagination.

But James' trilogy is far from the only erotic literature worth reading. With their stunning language and creative premises, each of these books will stretch your conception of sensuality and sexuality.