Horror is probably my favorite genre of literature. I'd say more than half of the books I read and have read are horror. After seeing a few reviews and recommendations on the House of Leaves I was very intrigued.
House of Leaves is a very challenging read. The story follows the main character Johnny Truant who finds an incomplete manuscript written by a recently deceased man named Zampano. The manuscript is a documentary of a photojourn*list by the name of Will Navidson and his wife Karen who have purchased a house which they soon find is larger on the inside than the outside.
House of Leaves has footnotes. It has footnotes of footnotes and appendixes of footnotes and footnotes with appendixes. It has footnotes from both Zampano and Johnny Truant.
Its writing style is difficult to follow, often makes you turn the book upside down or on its side, and is overall kind of fricking boring. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool book. The concept is incredible and such a unique experience. Unfortunately, so often throughout this book, I found myself wishing it would stay on track and continue the main story of the Navidson Record (the storyline I found most interesting)
More than half of this book is about Johnny Truant slowly losing his mind as he compiles Zampanos manuscript, Truant's heavy drug abuse and s*x addiction, and chapters long mind numbingly boring descriptions of the meaning and origin of words by Zampano.
With that said, would I recommend a new reader altogether skip Johnny Truants storyline? I can't say that I would. It does round out the novel and serve a deeper meaning. Understanding Truants state of mind while he is compiling House of Leaves is essential to understanding the house in itself.
Overall I'd give the book an 8/10. I finished in a week and even with its boring parts I could not put it down. I would recommend anyone who enjoys literature read this book. This book is more of an experience than a story. Its ability to drag you in and immerse you is truly unmatched.
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You need to do span instead of font baby
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Thank you!!!
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My pleasure bbygurl
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If you like weird layout books Maxwells Demon was actually pretty good and interesting (even if it didn't clinch the landing, IMHO). You should check it out. I would get a physical copy; I'm not sure how well some stuff would work on e-reader. And really, really not sure how it'd work on audiobook.
https://www.amazon.com/Maxwells-Demon/dp/0802149200
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I'll definitely check this one out! Good shout, thanks.
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How tedious would you say the gimmick with the weird layout is? Do you think it intends to be scary, or just uncomfortable?
I've never tried to read it but I think I'd like to read a scary one after I get through my next haul, but idk if I have the patience if the reading experience is tiring
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Not very tedious, honestly. It's not the entire book - and the parts where it gets really insane like in the picture I posted you're not intended to read most of the page.
I think it intends to be both. It isn't the scariest book I've ever read but what's scary to me may not be scary for you. It's definitely more uncomfortable. It makes you feel very claustrophobic and scattered.
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I found that it really added to the reading experiwnce personally. It made me feel more immersed in the story, almost like I was part of it as another layer of observation. I would never reccomend this book on kindle/pdf and thats how I ussually read books.
!slots222
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Has anyone done the ebook? I refuse to do footnote heavy ebooks after terry pratchett because that gets exhausting and his footnotes are pretty mandatory if you want to get half the jokes.
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I read the physical copy and I'm not sure how an e-book could ever possibly come close to replicating the experience.
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I figured. I'll be fricked before i carry around a book ever again though.
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I personally can't stand e-books so I may be biased. Nothing comes close to feeling the words on your fingertips and the hand cramps you get after reading for hours.
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I've done both a lot (a stupid amount) and they both have their avantages and disadvantages. Being able to read absolutely anywhere when you have a free minute and not dealing with trying to get light to shine on your page at night are what seals the deal for me.
I feel like a lot of the people that fetishize physical books haven't read enough to realize how inconvenient it is.
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The main thing for me is I get nauseous reading any screen, which is never the case for physical copies.
It's certainly more inconvenient but most of my reading happens in my couch or bed anyway.
I'm not the type of reader who can just read a few pages and set it down either - I need to commit at least an hour or two.
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Too post modern for me tbh
Younger me would have liked it
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Have you read it? I'm not sure if I agree that "post-modern" is an accurate way to describe its style.
I think personally it's written in a way to immerse you and make you claustrophobic and scattered, almost.
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Anything that plays with the form of the text as opposed to offering just a narrative is meta and post modern imo
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Id agree if it was jist done for aesthetics, butt the crazy text and stuff created a whole additional dynamic and really added to how the story is expwriwnced. I dont think the book would even work with standard text/writing.
!slots111
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I think I just don't want to be challenged intellectually anymore tbh
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unironically that attitude is like sooo post modern
!slots222
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Post structuralist ish
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I've been considering this one for a long while and kind of forgot about it. Will pick up a copy.
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I once found the account of a female redditor who posted in all the media feminism subreddits like MenWritingWomen who hated the Johnny portions so much she had made a custom ebook with all those parts completely removed. Interesting and infuriating level of neuroticism there. I might still have her account bookmarked somewhere.
I've never read the book myself, but maybe I'll get around to reading it some day. Sucks that the author never really wrote anything interesting after it.
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I'm no feminist but Johnnys portions did make me roll my eyes quite a bit. I think the point of it all is to question if any of it ever really happened to begin with, though.
Like I said, his storyline rounds out the novel and in the context of it all is absolutely important in my personal opinion
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Did you get the jist of the song yet?
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