Fifty Shades: background and baggage

So... I'm reading the Fifty Shades trilogy and watching the film in order to blog about the "phenomenon." I realize I'm rather behind in wanting to do this, but I've been avoiding reading the books since they came out. However, the desire to do this comes out of a conversation I had about the books on Facebook that got me a bit irritated.

I know how I feel about these books, but I want to do my best to approach this blogging series with as open a mind as I can.

Yes, I know what others have said about the trilogy and film, but am going to read it for myself and decide whether or not I agree with them.

So I as I'm reading the first book, I am doing everything I can to evaluate it on its own merits in terms of both content and storytelling. (Because how a story is written is just as important as what story is written.) What does the story say? How does it say it? What is my personal interpretation of the events as the author lays them out? How does the story make me feel? Why?

I'm ignoring, for the moment, my previous reading about the books so I can read the books themselves.

I'm going to try to be objective here.

And we'll see what happens.