J.K. Rowling jokes about erotic trilogy 50 Shades Of Grey

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Promoting her new "adult" novel The Casual Vacancy, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling finds it amusing that the most famous "adult" fiction of the moment is the erotic trilogy 50 Shades Of Grey. But, she says, there's a big difference.

"The difference should be, people have sex in this book but no one really enjoys it," she said of her own book at a reading in New York on Tuesday night.

Rowling prefers to call her latest work a "novel for grown-ups," noting that she doesn't want readers confused into thinking she has moved from the magical world of Hogwarts to something more like E.L. James' wildly popular erotica books.

The Casual Vacancy is set in a small English town where class prejudices are played out and "grown-up" topics such as teenage sex, drug addiction and domestic abuse are addressed. It has hit the top of bestseller lists across the world despite mixed reviews since its release in September.