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That $20 copy of House of Leaves I found at a thrift store and assumed was just a weird gimmick
Picked it up last summer in Spokane just because the cover looked beat up and mysterious. Figured it was one of those books that tries too hard to be artsy. The footnotes within footnotes within footnotes thing had me rolling my eyes at first. But three chapters in I realized I was actually turning pages slower on purpose. Not because it was hard to read but because the whole layout made me feel like I was losing my own grip on reality. Finished it at 2 AM in my garage waiting for a transmission fluid change to drain. Couldn't shake the feeling for days. Anyone else pick up a book expecting nonsense and get genuinely unsettled?
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beth_butler7517d ago
The garage detail is what got me too. I read it on my back porch during a storm and the way the house creaked just added to the whole thing. Slowing down on purpose is a good way to put it, I did the same thing with the appendix stuff. What worked for me was keeping a notebook nearby to jot down random thoughts, not to analyze it but just to get the weirdness out of my head. It helped me feel less like the book was crawling inside my brain.
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anthonykim17d ago
Garage at 2 AM reading footnotes? That's genuinely insane.
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markl7517d ago
Isn't "genuinely insane" just another way of saying you're dedicated to actually understanding the book?
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