Anyone ever read "House of Leaves"

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Has anyone ever read "House of Leaves"? Its a bit of a horror novel but the author experiments with form quite a bit. I have a signed first which I am not reading after starting it and then stopping, (its safely tucked inside a barristers case) but was just wondering if anyone here knows this book or has heard if it?

 

I've read it. Twice.

I really liked it, but it's not for everyone. The dedication page even reads "This is not for you." as a warning. You're lucky to have a signed 1st ed. as those are hard to come by.

It's a very interesting book with several layers of story. Most of the book reads as a critique of a film that may or may not exist written by a senile(?) old man who recently died. The film in question is a documentry of a family who discovers that the inside of their house is impossibly larger than the outside. Then a whole subplot is found in the footnotes writen by the person is compiling the notes of the critique. There's also codes and puzzles that are hidden throughout the book by the author and several appendixes of 'additional information'. All of which come together to form a haunting whole with some interesting lingering questions.

Also, there's a lot of play with the type on the pages, a maze section is typed out almost like a maze, a section on twins is typed with double collums, etc. Not to mention the fact the word "House" always appears in blue ink in this book.

The author also happens to be the brother of a female singer by the name of Poe, who released an album called "Haunted" which contains several referances to the "House of Leaves" and has been called the 'soundtrack' to the book.

If you're interested in reading it you should be able to find the paperback version so you won't damage the signed copy. Also there's another book called 'The Whalestoe Letters' which is just a reprint of some letters that appear in one of the appendixes with a few "newly discovered" letters thrown in, but I'd only recomend it for diehard fans of HoL.

 

Yeah, I heard this book caused quite a stir but didn't kow anything about it. I picked it up based on comentary by Brett E. Ellis. I may pick up a pb coby and finish it. Base on what I've read so far, its definitely not an easy read. Cheers to you for re-reading it!