fundevogel's fraction of 1001

I'm just looking to read 1001 selected from the books that have been included any version of "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" or "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up".

Book Finding Aid (1001 Books to Read Before You Die only).
Group Totals

1-50
from 1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up

# Title - Author..................................................​...............................post
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling.........................22
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling....................
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling.............................
4. The Giver - Lois Lowry..................................................​..................
5. Number the Stars - Lois Lowry..................................................​......
6. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein......................................
7. The Mouse and the Motorcycle - Beverly Cleary.................................
8. Charlotte's Web - E. B. White..................................................​........
9. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle..............................................
10. My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George...........................
11. Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George...................................
12. Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh..................................................​
13. Redwall - Brian Jacques..................................................​.............
14. The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket.............................................
15. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett................................
16. Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls......................................
17. Watership Down - Richard Adams..................................................​
18. The Indian in the Cupboard - Lynne Reid Banks...............................
19. The Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope...........................................
20. Hatchet - Gary Paulson..................................................​...............
21. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain..................................
22. The Island of the Blue Dolphin - Scott O'Dell...................................
23. The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien....................................
24. The Neverending Story - Michael Ende...........................................
25. The Witch of Blackbird Pond- Elizabeth George Speare.....................
26. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis.........................
27. Prince Caspian - C. S. Lewis..................................................​........
28. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis.................................
29. Der Struwwelpeter - Heinrich Hoffman............................................
30. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs - Jon Scieszka........................
31. The Stinky Cheese Man - Jon Scieszka............................................
32. Animalia - Graeme Base..................................................​..............
33. The Wolves in the Walls - Neil Gaiman............................................26
34. Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery.......................................
35. The Arrival - Shaun Tan.................................................................29
36. Blueberries For Sal - Robert McCloskey.............................................
37. The Borrowers - Mary Norton..........................................................
38. D'aulaires' Norse Gods And Giants - Ingri D'Aulaire............................
39. The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper..................................................​..
40. The Emperor's New Clothes - Hans Christian Anderson ......................
41. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein......................................................
42. Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown...........................................
43. Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss.....................................................
44. Half Magic - Edward Eager..................................................​............
45. Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes.......................................................
46. The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Anderson....................................
47. Misty Of Chincoteague - Marguerite Henry.........................................
48. Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor................................
49. The Secret Of The Old Clock - Carolyn Keene......................................
50. Stone Soup - Marcia Brown..............................................................

For the sake of touchstones I guess my next update will get a new post.

51-100
from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die

51. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson.......................
52. Watchmen - Alan Moore.................................................................
53. I, Robot - Isaac Asimov..................................................................
54. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut...............................................
55. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey...................................
56. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis.................................................
57. The Shining - Stephen King..................................................​..........
58. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller..................................................​...............
59. Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion..................................................​.....
60. Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton..................................................​........
61. Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges..................................................​.........
62. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.......................
63. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier..................................................​........
64. Once and Future King - T. H. White..................................................​
65. The Hunchback of Notredame - Victor Hugo......................................
66. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald..............................................
67. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley..................................................​...
68. The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman................................
69. The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allen Poe................................
70. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson..27
71. Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn..............................................28
72. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James................................................36
73. Story of O - Pauline Reage..................................................​............37
74. Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller.........................................................38
75. Story of the Eye - Georges Bataille...................................................42
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101-150
books appearing in both collections

101. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien........................................................
102. Gulliver's Travelers - Jonathan Swift.............................................
103. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll...............................................
104. Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll.....................................
105. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson......................................
106. The Call of the Wild - Jack London................................................
107. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne......................................
108. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain...........................
109. Lord of the Flies - William Golding................................................
110. The Three Musketeers - Alexander Dumas.....................................
111. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Conan Doyle............................23
112. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens.............................................34
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more from 1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up

151. The Story Of Doctor Doolittle - Hugh Lofting..................................
152. The Story Of Babar - Jean De Brunhoff..........................................
153. The Tale Of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter........................................
154. Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams..............................................
155. The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle.........................................
156. Where The Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak.................................
157. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman...................................................30
158. Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne..................................................​.....35
159. Just So Stories - Rudyard Kipling..................................................​39
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling 8/24/10
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up"*

Clearly this book doesn't need another review. However, enjoyable as it is, I was disappointed to realize that the text had indeed been Americanized since I first read it ages ago. It doesn't hurt the story of course, but it seems like a supreme act of over-editing to tailor editions to specific dialectical regions. Aside from the Harry Potter series no one ever felt the need to "translate" an English, or Scottish or Australian book for American audiences.

Give us some credit. I've read tons of English language books from other countries, no Americanization necessary or desired.
4.5/5 stars

*I'm looking to read 1001 selected from the books that have been included any version of "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" or "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up".

Progress
children's: 42
Boxall's: 29
shared: 10
total: 61/1001

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Conan Doyle 9/5/10
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up" and
"1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006, 2008 & 2010)

I finished this one up earlier but wasn't really sure what to say about it. It's a pretty easy read compared to a lot of Victorian fiction, but I wasn't really impressed with the plot (I swear, after three chapters I wondered if the whole story would take place within the warmth of Holmes' study). On the other hand I really loved some of the characters and their interactions. Holmes and Watson were priceless together, and it made it easy to see why the two of them have lasted so long as characters. Stapleton the Naturalist and the doctor were also pretty fantastic characters what with Stapleton being introduced as a grown man bounding across the moor with his butterfly net and the doctor proclaiming to Holmes upon his introduction that he just loved Holmes' skull. They were certainly hyperbolic characters, but honestly, that's why I liked them so much.

I wish the whole book had been as amusing as this but much of it dragged and as a mystery I felt like I was only being given enough information so that at the end when Holmes declared the mystery solved it would be. There really wasn't enough going on for any other conclusion to be drawn so you didn't really have much to ponder while reading. It's a mystery that leads you, not one that puzzles.
3/5 stars

Progress
children's: 43
Boxall's: 30
shared: 11
total: 62/1001

Love the placeholders! Great idea.

Thanks. I don't know that I'll ever get through them all but they're there if I need them.

The Wolves in the Walls - Neil Gaiman 10/9/10
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up"

Quick little picture book. I haven't been impressed by the graphic novels I've read by Gaiman (I'm not into quests) but I was completely charmed by this. I wish this one had been around when I was little, though it is hard to imagine I would have enjoyed it more than I did as an adult. The story is clever, creative and bold and I was even more impressed by the illustrations which are gorgeous. At some point I'm going to have to get a copy of this for my library.
5/5 stars

Progress
children's: 44
Boxall's: 30
shared: 11
total: 63/1001

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson 11/22/10
from "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006, 2008 & 2010)

The story has a good premise but it isn't really realized, possibly due to the irregular format. The book doesn't read like a typical novel. Instead it is broken into several small, greatly overlapping parts each narrating the course of events as they were percieved by a character. The first section is told by the lawyer Utterson, who suspects his friend the doctor is being blackmailed by Mr. Hyde, then the reader is presented with the account of Dr. Lanyon to whom Mr. Hyde's identity is revealed near the end of the events of the story and finally you get the story according to Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Hyde is of course uninterested in recording his experiences.

The problem is that though the idea of building a complete narrative from various points of view is a good one in this case its done rather sloppily. The accounts are more repetitive than complementary and it isn't until the last one that the idea of the duality of man is introduced in a last minute hamfisted sort of way. It reminds me of the last chapter of Brave New World where Huxley decided to spell out what his book was all about as if it wasn't already obvious to the most disinterested of readers. The only difference is Huxley didn't need that chapter to explain his intent, where as the ideas Stevenson invoked weren't at all hinted at in the rest of his book.

I've heard this book was written very quickly and surmise that it's parts are akin to the scraps of writing a writer produces in the early stages of writing to flesh out their thoughts and possibly rework to actually use in the story. But Stevenson never got any further in developing his novel he just strung together the bits of writing he whipped out and called it a novella. It a real shame since it's a good story and even with the horribly bad structure and organization you can tell that Stevenson knew how to put words on the page, even if he didn't bothered to put his words to unified purpose.

The edition I read also included the short stories "The Body Snatcher", "Markheim" and "The Bottle Imp". These also had a tendency to ramble on longer than necessary. Perhaps he was paid by the inch? However they were better told and were fairly sophisticated horror stories with interesting premises. Markheim in particular is the sort of story that would be an interesting piece to analyze for a literature class. It touches on similar themes to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but is exponentially better at communicating them.
3/5 stars

Progress
children's: 44
Boxall's: 31
shared: 11
total: 64/1001

Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1/5/11
from "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006, 2008 & 2010)

This book had been sitting my shelf for years mocking me. No more.

I feel a little bad saying I enjoyed reading this book. It seems kinda wrong to enjoy a book about sick people living under an oppressive government. But it is very well written and has a wry sort of humor to it. Honestly it reminded me of Catch-22, but wryer, much wryer.

The book's strength is in it's characters. It's an ensemble cast and the characters come from all sorts of backgrounds with various perspectives. The story is written from the point of view of it's characters and Solzhenitsyn is able to shift gracefully from the draconic mind of the dedicated party-man to the studious young liberal without hitch.

With his diverse characters Solzhenitsyn is able to address a range of issues greater than any one of his characters could. Through the hospital staff we learn about the critical shortage of supplies, overtaxed equipment and the entrenchment of bad workers that do none of their own work leaving the dedicated workers with double workloads. We learn about the doctors' naive insensitivity to a patient's right to know what his condition and treatment is let alone his right to approve or refuse treatment. But some of the most rousing issues are raised and debated aggressively by the characters themselves, usually with the primary protagonist, Oleg Kostoglotov, spitting fire across the ward.

Ultimately it was a captivating read though the ending turned my perspective of the protagonist on its head. For all his intellect and fiery political opinions Kostoglotov was a prisoner that needed his prison. He was institutionalized, not it in the dependent, helpless way we usually think of it, but he had come to define himself with the bars he beat himself against and without them he didn't know who he was.
4.5/5 stars

Progress
children's: 44
Boxall's: 32
shared: 11
total: 65/1001

The Arrival - Shaun Tan 3/31/11
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up"

I checked this out on a recommendation not knowing it was on the 1001 Children's Books list. It's a wonderful little graphic novel told in pictures alone, quite adult in my opinion. The story follows a man as he immigrates to a strange new land and the experiences and difficulties he faces adjusting to his new home. The illustrations are a wonderful combination of highly rendered and sumptuously surreal and the story traces its way through dark histories, new wonders and general confusion until the man becomes a part of his new country. Highly Recommended.
5/5 stars

I also went back through the 1001 Books to Read Before You Grow Up and found an awful lot I managed to read before I grew up that I had forgotten to put on this list. So now they are.

Progress
children's: 67
Boxall's: 32
shared: 11
total: 88/1001

Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass) - Philip Pullman 5/16/11
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up"

A bit uneven. Some parts were unnecessarily long for what was essentially an adventure story and others were obviously information dumps. Oddly my favorite part of the book was an information dump. What sets this book apart from other fantasy is the interesting correlations to our world's religious and philosophical issues the author has woven into this other world. The problems of prophesy are acknowledged in the context of determinism and freewill and the power and threat of the church is illustrated in the people they sacrifice.

This one is definitely better than the movie, which, if I remember correctly omitted the most fascinating conundrums and changed the outcome beyond recognition. Movie adaption fail.
3.5/5 stars

Progress
children's: 68
Boxall's: 32
shared: 11
total: 89/1001

I enjoyed His Dark Materials, but the third book does drag it out a bit. The film was just such a waste of good actors and actually good filming techniques. It was cut beyond all recognition.

While I am concentrating on the grown-up book, your thread is making me curious about some of the books on the children's list. I might have to crack and add that one to my wishlist!

I was trying to restrain myself, but I've got the omnibus which gave me about two days before I broke down and started the second book. So far I like it better than the first.

I merged the two lists because though I am a completionist and would very much like to eventually read 1001 books, I can't handle the 1001 books I read being set in stone. Merging the two gives me a bit of play rather than having to choose between completing 1001 or sparing myself from the books on the list that really have no appeal for me.

That's a good idea, there are quite a few books (on both lists) that I doubt I'll ever read. 1001 overall is a much more realistic target.

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 12/20/11
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up" and
"1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006)

It's sentimental 19th century pap. But it's pretty well written pap, even if it is terribly padded at just 120 pages.
3/5 stars

Progress
children's: 69
Boxall's: 33
shared: 12
total: 90/1001

Woo! I managed to add four books to my list this year!

Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne 3/8/12
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up"

I never read this as a child, but I quite enjoyed it as an adult. It is charmingly written with a gentle, affectionate humor. I loved the drawings and if I ever did have a child (which I won't) I would definitely read this to them. As it is I'm thinking about tracking this down in Russian as my vocabulary improves.
4/5 stars

Progress
children's: 70
Boxall's: 33
shared: 12
total: 91/1001

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James 4/5/12
from "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006)

It's been I while since I hated a classic. But this I hated. Hated the convoluted sentences. Hated the stupid characters who couldn't seem to help wildly vacillating between eye-gougingly saccharine and comicly sinister. Hated the innocent sexism James demonstrated in concocting such brick-headed women and serpentine children.

Hate myself a little for granting it that if you look at it in social terms regarding the uneven power distribution between upper class children and the adult help that's meant to be looking after them it is kinda creepy and thoughtful despite it's overbearing condescension towards and ignorance of childcare and caregivers.

I give a hardy "and how!" to the folks responsible for removing it from subsequent editions.
2/5 stars

Progress
children's: 70
Boxall's: 34
shared: 12
total: 92/1001

Story of O - Pauline Reage 5/27/12
from "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006, 2008 & 2010)

This book is brutal.

It is purported to be a work of erotic fiction focused on BDSM…but from what I know of the the BDSM community it doesn't represent them at all. Maybe things were different in the scene when this was written but it's my understanding that people in the scene today regard it as play. They layout their rules beforehand, respect eachother's limits and know there's a right way and a wrong way to use a riding crop. It's my understanding that modern members of the BDSM community enjoy playing with power dynamics, the characters in Story of O are destroyed by them.

The story is about a woman known only as O, a designation that simultaneously denies her personhood and mirrors her various orifices and thus identifies her as a thing to be penetrated. At the start of the book she is taken without explanation by her lover to a mysterious chateau where she is taught to be a sex slave. She is denied any control over her body or her actions, abused physically, mentally and sexually all in the name of training her, of making her into something else. Training that she knows her lover wants her to suffer and be transformed by. And because he wants it, because he loves her when she is debased and she loves him (god knows why) she eventually loses her own will and becomes a slave to his will and to anyone one that can recognize the signs of her enslavement.

The most graphic violence and disturbing sex is mostly in the first half of the book, but I honestly find her complete loss of self and fierce compliance with anything her "master" asked of her the most disturbing thing. She was literally stripped of any of her own feelings or thoughts and became and empty vessel to be filled with whatever most pleased her master. Occasionally a character in the book made mention that she was a slave by choice and she could end it whenever she wanted...except that she didn't choose to be a slave and she was never offered a choice about it until after her brains were scraped out of her skull, scrambled and returned to her skull a substance suitable only to be an ingredient for the sort of culinary delights we can't stomach in America. I have never been more repulsed by a book in my life. And yet, I didn't hate it.

For me at least it was a rewarding read. Horrifying yes, but also well crafted and thought provoking. I think that was what made it so worthwhile for me. Because I could not identify with any of the characters (they were all bats as far as I was concerned) and the point of view presented (O's) was so twisted I couldn't accept O's interpretation of and justification for her situation. As such none of the explanation of character motivation or behavior given within in the book was trustworthy. I mean, would you trust the word of a woman that thinks that the thing to do is help her master force a young woman into the same sex-slave boot camp she was brain-raped at so that this other young girl can be pleasing to her master? I think not. Chick's got chowder in her head. That sort of nuts puts an unbridgeable distance between me and the story that meant this wasn't a passive read. I read this book with my brains turning like I was reading mostly backward but still noteworthy classical philosophy. If classical philosophy was rife with anal sex and caning.

Whatever. It's a repulsive story but it's well written and it made me think. Whether or not I came even remotely close to getting what the author intended out of this (I really don't know about the author, I'm afraid she might've drunk the kool-aid) I'm glad I read it and it was still vastly more readable than the The Turn of the Screw.
3/5 stars

Progress
children's: 70
Boxall's: 35
shared: 12
total: 93/1001

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller 6/4/12
from "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006, 2008 & 2010)

Book number whatever on the "fundevogel can't resist a banned book" binge. It's good! It was banned in the US until the 60's for it's sexual content (though it's not erotica) and was the book responsible for changing censorship laws in America. Yay! Personally I loved it. There's no real plot, just a roughly chronological collection of stories and musings from the author's time slumming in Paris. The writing is absolutely beautiful, with a flow and nuance I found sensual which is a wonderful contrast to the crazy shit going down.

Seriously. Miller doesn't exactly portray himself and his comrades in a favorable light. Miller floats from one borrowed bunk to another, mooching off his friends, casual acquaintances and people he only tolerates for the meals or francs he knows he can get out of them. In fact the book basically breaks down into just a few things:

• Chasing tail (mostly prostitutes)


• getting by (mooching food, money and a place to crash)


• Listening to other people talk long enough to get food, money or a place to crash out of them


• pining over women


• musing/ranting about art and the world

It seems pretty superficial, and in a way it is, but that's sorta what's great about it. Miller doesn't present a clean sparkling face to the world. He lays it all out and that's that. And while he and his friends do plenty of shitty things, apparently without remorse, I do admire that as difficult and amoral the life depicted was it was a conscious and enthusiastic choice to live that way. He faced down how the world would have him live, and rejected it. Rejected the morality others would impose on him and the steady job and reliable pay so that he could live life outside of the mold. That's really what it was about to me, being the author of your own destiny and damn the consequences.
4.5/5 stars

Progress:
children's: 70
Boxall's: 36
shared: 12
total: 94

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling 6/5/12
from "1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up"

I'd heard this in audiobook form as a kid but never read it. Honestly, I liked it better as a kid. The stories aren't bad, but they just weren't as good as I remember them. I guess that's why you're supposed to read it before you grow up. Oh well. I suppose it didn't help that I was reading it against a backdrop of British imperialism and knowledge of Kipling's bigoted tendencies. In all fairness it was mostly free of racial or cultural bias, though there was a flippant use of the N-word at one point. The only story that outright bothered me was a the one about King Solomon and the butterfly which a pretty infuriating fable about how to use deceit and fear-mongering to keep your wife (or wives) appropriately cowed.
3/5 stars

Winnie the Pooh was sooooo much better.

Progress:
children's: 71
Boxall's: 36
shared: 12
total: 95

Well, I guess keeping your wife appropriately cowed is a very important lesson for a child to learn 8/

Yeah...I'd be pretty uncomfortable with children reading that one.

Story of the Eye - Georges Bastaille 10/3/12
from "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" (2006, 2008 & 2010)

So after I finished this I was looking through my bookshelves trying to figure out what to read. I just couldn't settle on the next one and I got to thinking about my reading this year. Often as a year progresses I find certain commonalities in a chunk of the books I've been reading. Let's be real. This year it's been sex. Weird Freudian sexuality in The Uses of Enchantment, horrifying sex in Story of O, sexy debauchery in Tropic of Cancer, healthy sexperts in The Ethical Slut and now I can add Story of the Eye to that list.

Honestly, you might want to strike me from your contacts list after I say this but I thought this book was ridiculous. It is essentially a collection of increasingly twisted and violent sexual exploits of two teenage lovers narrated with restrained enthusiasm by the male of the pair. They piss and cum with abandon all over each other and most of the pages of the book as they engage in exhibitionism and violent sex. Their overwhelming sexual aggression drives a pious girl they have fetishized to madness and suicide, gains them the support of an older pervert that likes to watch them fuck shit up and masturbate from a discreet distance and ultimately concludes in a brilliantly fucked up scene with a priest. It's not pretty...

It is literally a collection of the most horrifying and disgusting sexual scenarios the author could imagine. It's the Aristocrats played straight. And that's why rather than being emotionally beat like I was after reading Story of O I found this amusing and ridiculous. This isn't about believable characters exacting their terrible fantasies on hapless bystanders. This is the porn equivalent of a child banging two dolls together to simulate a bloodthirsty battle. It's enthusiastic, and satisfying to the child, but one thing it will never be mistaken for is the real thing.

Now, you could certainly get upset about what fantasies these represent, and that's valid, but unlike Story of O I think the sexual appeal here is less about the actions of the characters and more about the appeal of dreaming up the extreme and shocking. Bastaille would have grown up with all the Victorian sexual oppression we're told about, and frankly, this book is strike back. Is it so odd that in a culture that demonized sex the embrace of sexuality could result in a kink that conflates sex and other socially maligned activities?

Also there is some surrealistic/Freudian thing with the fetishization of eggs and eyeballs. It made me imagine what it would be like if this story was filmed with the style and technology of Un Chien Andalou. I really think that would be the way to go if you were to adapt it to screen.

PS This is also notable for being the third book I read this year to use the word "lugubrious". Seriously, I'd never encountered this word before in my life, now it's everywhere.

Progress:
children's: 71
Boxall's: 37
shared: 12
total: 96

Great review! If you want to stick with sex as your theme, Before Night Falls has a fairly consistent sexual theme as well...

Thanks! And thanks for the recommendation.

So does The Piano Teacher, which I don't recommend. I really wonder why it is on the list.