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 on HBO shows ; 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.