If you’re a woman and haven’t heard of the novel Fifty Shades of Grey, you may have been living under the same rock as I. When forced to take Alaska Airline's flight 66 (due to heavy flight loads) to Seattle via Cordova, Yakutat and Juneau this week, I decided to bring along the copy my daughter lent me to pass the eight hours devoted to multiple take offs, landings and ground time.

Little did I know that a hundred pages later I would be obscuring the book cover from my fellow passengers. One particularly observant flight attendant, however, did notice and volunteered that she had already read the two sequels. Hum.

Author E.L. James’ rise from obscurity to household words, via Fifty Shades of Grey, is not only capturing readers it is also having an impact on travelers. Seattle is finding that its downtown Escala high-rise condo building is becoming a popular tourist attraction. The Escala is where Fifty Shades of Grey’s male protagonist Christian Grey lives in the racy novel.

On the stranger than fiction front, a hotel in the UK even replaced its bedstand Gideon Bible with the novel.

I’m guessing the owner hasn’t read the novel, if he thinks it will put his female guests to sleep. While I'm not recommending the book, it certainly does pass the time on a long flight.