Why bother with Fifty Shades of Grey when you can read eight years of Jeb Bush's emails?

The prospective 2016 Republican presidential candidate released an e-book (PDF) of the emails he sent during his time as governor of Florida. Oh the novelty!

When I was governor, I often used email to correspond. I hope you find these notes as interesting as I did: http://t.co/QYBqGClV7F — Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 10, 2015

Bush, who was dubbed the "eGovernor," writes that he spent nearly 30 hours weekly on emails using the address jeb@jeb.org.

"My staff estimated I spent 30 hours a week answering emails, either from my laptop or Blackberry, often while on the road," he says.

A screengrab from a website containing emails from Jeb Bush's time as governor of Florida. Image: jebemails.com

Bush writes that he "loved being governor of Florida," despite "hurricanes, budget battles or even hanging chads," a reference to the Florida recount of the 2000 presidential election, when his brother, George W. Bush, was declared the winner.

In releasing the "first chapter" of the emails, which were also published in a searchable database on a website — jebemails.com — Bush said he was doing so "in the spirit of transparency."

"Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration," he says. "But they're all here so you can read them and make up your own mind."