House of Leaves

I've not read it, though I've heard the Poe album (she's his sister) that loosely corresponds.

 

It's a HELL of a good book.

It's a little difficult to follow if you aren't a big reader though as it's really convoluted prose.

 

I've read it twice already, one of my all-time favorite novels!

 

Does it have pictures?

 

Actually, yes. There are some photograhps and sketches in the back of the book, illustrating or clarifying some events that happen in the story. But other than that, it's a novel, not a "picture book" or anything.

 

I only look at pretty pictures.

 

tssssk...

 

Ok, I had been hearing about this book for, well, a couple years anyway, mainly on message boards and the like, but the way it was described always made me kinda hesitant to read it...I'm not really a fan of horror, I tend to like real human characters and interactions/situations. Somewhere along the line I had given the title "House of Leaves" a similar connotation to Palahniuk's "Guts." (A story I still refuse to read (and I've kinda sorta picked up enough about it to know this is the right choice)). Needless to say, I never looked it up at Barnes and Noble.

Until now. It's summer and it has been a /long/ time since I've read any good books, and recently this title came up again. I looked into it a little more and talked a little with someone, and somehow convinced myself to finally read it. So, I just bought it last night and will start shortly.

The reason I'm bumping this thread (one of only two mentions of the book a superherohype google site search brings up), is because I'm sure more of you have read it and am interested in hearing more thoughts. Does anyone not like it? Is it really that good? Is it scary, horror-gore-movie scary or more psychological-thriller-mind-****-movie scary? Stuff like that.

Tx,

 

What kinda cryptic book is this. I feel like you're all talking Spanish.

 

I've never heard of this book...does anyone have anymore thoughts other than it's "good"??

 

maybe spoiler? it's pretty much all in any main review of the book, though.

Spoiler

Apparently it's a multi-person narrative, the core story of which is about a family who moves into a house only to find that it is wider on the inside than it is on the outside. They start to investigate it and weird stuff starts happening. Then there is a manuscript of a documentary (based on this house? I think?) written by an old blind man. The third story is from the young kid who reads/edits the script via footnotes, and apparently he's got some stuff to say too. The whole thing is written all weird, with actual footnotes and little lines of poems and words going any-which-way on the paper, etc etc. Might have a whole page with only a couple centered words, for example. One of the front cover blurbs says it's the "first major experimental novel of the new millenium. and it's a monster. Dazzling."

I dunno, do a little research, there's all kindsa info on it. There's a whole backstory about how it used to not be a book, something about in the nineties it was just passed around between all the young generation's outcasts and had like this big cult following of strippers and tattoo artists or some crap (though this could very well have been made up history at the first printing of the book for publicity/atmosphere/creepiness).

 

Sounds like it's supposed to mess with your mind.......interesting though, I'll have to check it out.

 

...alrighty, thanks for the summary though.

 

Here's from wiki, all of it considered "non spoiler" (because the rest of the plot following is marked as spoilers):

I guess I was kinda off with my little remarks, heh.

 

Amazon.com gives some pretty good summaries and reviews as well.

 

Maybe I'll stop by Borders and pick up a copy to read on my vacation

 

Where ya goin?

 

A cruise. Stopping by Puerto Rico and a few other islands. I've been working out like a madman.

 

Ah, hope you continue to once your vacation ends.