Star comment: No need for elitism over books
There will be some who turn their noses up at the news that EL James' erotic fiction Fifty Shades of Grey has become one of the UK's most borrowed library books.
They will bemoan the fact that cornerstones of literature like Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre or Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina do not appear.
While their taste in literature may be laudable, their elitist view is not.
Libraries have never faced a more difficult time. They are under siege from the rise of ebooks and the ever-increasing panoply of leisure activities available. Anything that attracts new customers to libraries is to be welcomed.
EL James' book appears at number three on the list of most popular authors: beaten only by thriller writer Lee Child, whose 2011 volume The Affair and 2012 sequel A Wanted Man are at one and two respectively.
James deserves every credit for her success. Her volume inspired a literary revolution, changing the game for publishers and clocking up huge sales.
Her tale of the explicitly erotic and frequently dark relationship between college graduate Anastasia Steele and young business magnate Christian Grey may not be to everybody's taste. However, its success had one undeniable and unequivocally positive effect: it encouraged more people to read.
And that, whether you prefer Shakespeare or not, is good.
When JK Rowling was smashing records with her Harry Potter books, there was a similar debate. Surely the people of Britain deserved more from their authors than a tale of the boy wizard who duels with a creation called Voldermort?
It was nonsense then and it is now.
Libraries are pillars of our society. They provide social cohesion, they advance standards of literacy and they promote a sense of togetherness among the community. They offer solace and inspiration; knowledge gives us power.
Okay, so EL James' may not move us in the same way as some of Britain's greatest authors – but she encouraged hundreds of thousands of non-readers to enjoy the simple pleasures of a book.
Other authors on the most-loaned list include Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and American author James Patterson.
Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie and CS Lewis were populist authors who wrote for the masses. EL James will never match up to those great writers; but her works have a similar effect.
