House of Leaves

[Jerome Scuggs]

holy shit. anyone else read this book?

it's old, but DAMN. the author imo is brilliant - he has so many sub-levels of story here, it isn't even funny. it's so outwardly fiction but the way the story is presented - footnotes with real and fictitious book cites, introduction and liner notes by a fictional character about a fictional manuscript about a fictional movie (but all presented VERY nonfictionally), and quoting real and fictional people, etc etc etc etc, makes it a book that you'll be Googling up facts for hours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_leaves

[Cylor]

I love it also. There's a Science Fiction/Fantasy course at my school that used to teach it but apparently a girl complained about the sex scenes and it was banned from our school district. I picked it up right after I heard about the banning (I was like "SEX SCEEENNNEEESS! I'M TOTALLY GONNA BUY IT!") and then it ended up being really good. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone.

[Verthanthi]

I like his sister.

[Theif of Time]

ROFL cylor. I hate narcs like that. So full of themselves.
Next library visit, I'm getting out this book. Whats the author?

[NaiLed]

oh cool. i'll buy this book after i finish The World According To Garp (thanks TK- this book is great. i'm about 2/3 way through, when Garp wrote another short story called The World According To B-something. it's got to be my favourite book i've read)

[Jerome Scuggs]

ROFL cylor. I hate narcs like that. So full of themselves.
Next library visit, I'm getting out this book. Whats the author?

Mark Z. Danielewski

There's three versions, a FULL versions, a 2-color version, and a black/white version. I have the 2-color versions - every instance of "house" is in blue (dunno why) - even a german guy named hausenkratz or something has "haus" blue'd. Some of the other stuff is colored blue. The Full version has more color - red coloring where there are strikeouts, and the indentions for the Braille are raised. (Don't ask, but don't worry, there's a footnote translating the braille)

I guess you could do with the b/w version (assuming thats what the library got) but just know, if you like it enough to buy it (i borrowed it and now i have my own copy), look for the 2-color or full color version

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Heh, my girlfriend owns all three versions, including a signed hardback copy of the full-color version. Altogether, my place houses four copies of this book.

[Lucon]

What's the book about? If it's not about massive conspiracies in a bleak future, the ultranet, or me, I won't read it.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Short version:

It's about a house that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

[Jerome Scuggs]

What's the book about? If it's not about massive conspiracies in a bleak future, the ultranet, or me, I won't read it.

It's really layered (it took 10 years to write)

The basic idea is, a guy found a manuscript in a dead guy's house. The manuscript is about a film called the Navidson Record, about the guy's house which, to sum it up in the most basic idea, is evil. It has several plots though - the finder of the manuscript interposes his personal story via footnotes (alongside footnotes citing fictitious and real books MLA style), and then the appendixes are filled with poems and pictures and info.

The thing about this book is, it's like a BMW - all the little gadgety goodies are almost as fun as driving the thing. Besides the story, the style of the book is nothing short of brilliant, right down to some pages being nothing but about 15 words in a small square to simulate where the original author wrote part of the story on the back of a small index card, or where brackets show where some of the story is illegible (and then a footnote explaining it was an ink stain, or something), s[]t of li[ ]his (that says 'sort of like this')

It's impossible to explain, but it's ridiculously cool.

One of the things that amazed me, is, when the book gets climatic, the author starts decreasing words per page, until there's just one word on each page, or maybe two or three, so you read through faster, so you can almost feel the pace of the story. One time I was so caught up in it, when it resumed normal page style I had a little jump :/