"It seems like all that's happened is that we've found an obvious, desperate way to make one book reading profitable and fun to be at. "

Dingdingdingding!!!

Somebody give Graham a prize!

One day you might even see a girl naked someplace other than a book store or a strip club! Dare to dream.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, good one!

SHOOOOOOOOOOOWSTOPPER!!!

Um, what bus? I am really committed to public transportation to save the environment and such.

Sooo, they use nudity as the draw and make money off of reading other people's work? Unless that money is going to a non-profit, that seems ethically questionable.

I'm all for nudity and books, but I'd rather hear the author read his/her own work than shell out $15+ for mediocre-looking girls to be yet again unoriginal.

I challenge Naked Girls Reading to donate their profits to a literacy-related non-profit and/or read their own writing. Either of those changes would make it more worthwhile.

I second that suggestion!

Several of your commenters seem to be cynical, unimaginative grumps. Maybe they should go back to sitting on park benches and throwing rocks at the squirrels.

I am in favor of naked girls as a matter of general principle, and I can't think of a better step forward than the combination of naked girls and literature. I am not at all surprised that our reviewed found it slightly difficult to describe the contribution of the sublime feminine presence in a mere words.

I hope that your readers (and most of all the naked readers) ignore the catcalls from the troglodytes and embrace naked reading as both literary appreciation and performance art.

SirGentleman: What a good reading brings to a book or poem is little to no different than what a good performance brings to a play. Could royalties be paid out to the owners of the works? Maybe. But demanding donations to charity? We do not generally demand a group performing King Lear to donate their hard-earned profits just because they did not write the play. Similarly, we do not ask dancers to donate their profits if they use music in their act.

The girls generally read excerpts from larger works or individual pieces from collections of shorter works. This sort of thing can drive sales. There are NGR groups across the nation and they get a fair amount of press. If the publishing companies felt ripped off, they would not be quiet about it.

Whatever a person may think about the ethics of erotica, it is clearly marketable. Pictures of naked women doing nothing but standing around naked sell. Does the nudity have anything to do with the reading, yes and no actually. There are costume elements from time to time but, even if it did not, it adds to the event.

Maybe it would be better for the authors, in those cases where the authors are alive, to get up there naked and read their works but these girls are not just saving you the trouble of reading. They are adding inflection, dramatic pauses, meaningful glances, occasional side comments, gestures, and other elements of performance.

There is also something to be said for the experience of being part of an audience. I have had drama and literature instructors insist that some things must be experienced in a group to have really experienced them at all. It is not just a naked woman and a book, there is audience engagement and introductions.

This sort of show is certainly not for everyone. Whether it is worth paying for is a personal choice like most any show. Opinions on which girls are truly beautiful and which are just okay are also personal. However, drawing on another person's work is not inherently unoriginal even if people are not always original when they do so. These girls work at bringing a worthwhile performance and not just a cheap gimmick. If it does not interest you, keep your money, stay at home, and read a book yourself.