Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire

The material of this book is beauty on screen, desire in our heads, and the alchemy they make in the dark.

The title of the book is seriously misleading. The argument I assumed it will present was something along the line of how films shape our desire. I expected an argument that considers how standards on desires and even love are being commonised by the ease at which sex is paraded on TV. But I was wrong. Instead, what I got was along the line of the history of cinema and how in its evolution, alternative lifestyles became incorporated into the mainstream. The writing style felt more reflective than analytic as the writer appeared to zero in on a character and use that point of contact mixed with his personal experience to dig into a topic.

I lost interest in the book midway.