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House of Leaves was kinda mid, but I have to give credit to any work that so completely btfos audiobook and Kindle """readers"""

https://old.reddit.com/r/houseofleaves/comments/16sj0mg/audio_books_of_house_of_leaves

								

								

House of Leaves tells the story of a man who discovers an infinite spooky space within his home, which is depicted in a found footage movie that doesn't exist, which is described in a faux-academic book with incredibly bizarre formatting, which was edited, and compiled by a mentally ill s*x-haver who tells dubiously-connected stories in multi-page footnotes as his mental condition deteriorates.

I think this book was a bit too pleased with itself, and I didn't really find it scary. I did fall off reading a couple times, so I might have got a better experience reading it in one go. But every time I turned the page and saw a giant wall of text from one of Johnny's rambling schizo stories it felt like a natural place to take a break. Maybe I got filtered, but I took much more interest in the Navidson film and the imaginatively typeset criticism around it than in the bloated "aaaarrrrgggghhh I'm going insaaaaaaaaaaaaaane" bits (although the letters from Johnny's mother were interesting).

Despite my underwhelmed reaction, this is the only novel I've ever seen to treat its book as a physical object and work of art, instead of a neutral way to store a novel (which could also be done in a PDF, epub, audio file, oral tradition, etc). So much of this novel's character is in typesetting, rotating pages, the tactile experience of flipping back and forth, largely blank or wildly busy pages, etc etc. This would make reading it on an electronic device a decidedly deficient experience, and making it a linear audiobook actively impossible. We often think about what books are good at vs. what films are good at, etc. but this is the rare non-graphic novel to ask what the book as a physical object is good at. Not only do I like reading, I like books, and this is a fun (if exaggerated) exploration of what they can do.

So I really struggle with reading physical copies of books even straight forward books I know I will really struggle with the format of house of leaves, so I'm wondering if there's any audiobooks out there, I know there's not one on audible so what others options are there?

:mars#eybrainlettalking:

Hi all, I've been searching the internets high and low for an audio recording of House of Leaves- I've wanted to read it forever but as a law student it's hard to find time for reading for enjoyment, but have plenty of time to listen to books on my commute to and from school.

:marsey#gigaretardtalking:

Hello, I discovered house of leaves a year or so ago so I went ahead a got the book. I read a couple of pages of it and couldn't really retain any information. I don't know if it's because I have adhd or something else, but it's like that with most everything I read. I went and told my mom to return the book after I read the same page over and over again without understanding what it meant. Recently, I saw night mind's video pop up in my feed again and decided to try to read the book again. This time, I read along with an audio book that I found on yt. The thing is, it stopped after the introduction. I went ahead and read the first 5 pages of the navidson record but didn't really understand what it was saying. Does anyone know if there's any audiobook of this online? I'd be willing to pay for it. Thank you.

:marseyshi#tforbrainstalking:

!bookworms have you read this? What did you think?

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I did read it all in one go, over the course of a week or two. Lots of tub reading. I found myself fed up with the Johnny Truant narrated bits as well, until about 2/3rds of the way through when he started traveling around more and had fully fallen off the deep end. And you realize he's a pretty unreliable narrator. I was purely in it for more info about the House itself and the Navidson record. I did not find it particularly scary, but those explorations were quite unsettling. I can picture 3D spaces and dimensions mentally quite easily so maybe that helped add to my unease with that place.

Navidson's bike trip back into the house to find his brother, watching the miles click by faster and faster, knowing he basically has zero chance of returning. That was the only point of the tale where I felt any dread. I read the last 3rd of the book basically in one sitting. By far the most interesting bit of the book, House-wise. Ladders going on forever to no end or purpose is quite disturbing. Irrational spaces, like hallways that go on and on where the ceiling gets lower and lower. :marseyscared:

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Wow, you must be a JP fan.

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