I guess I have myself more under control now but it was actually pretty bad for a while. This book completely knocked my socks off and I couldn’t stop talking about it. It was such a scary, weird, creepy, wonderful reading experience.
Unfortunately it was probably at the same time the book most other people I recommended it to hated and my reputation as a trustworthy source of recommendations got a bad shake.
Reading this was a hell of an experience. I am not easily spooked but this story kept frightening me in a way not many others ever have. The writing at one point got as small as the openings in the hallway you had to squeeze through and I had a hard time breathing…
It’s a story about a young family that moves into a house where they quickly discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. On top of that a room appears in the house that wasn’t there before. A dark hallway behind a door…
That is not something that the owners photojournalist Will Navidson nor his wife Karen Green are prepared to easily accept but no matter how scientifically they try to approach this paradox it just remains a solid fact.
They have no idea what consequences this impossibility brings, until one day their two little children wander off into this dark hallway behind the door. It opens the void for an ever growing abyss, a deep and dark coldness and a growl that tears through the wall.
House of Leaves is not an easy book to read. It will challenge you in many many ways. Be prepared to get astonished looks from people sitting opposite you on the train when you read it upside down, back to front, when the writing shoots vertically across a page or diagonally up and down. Oh and sometimes you need a mirror.
Certainly a cult book with as many people loving it and an equally large percentage that find it stupid as hell.
And did I mention it was scary ? Give it a try if you dare 😉
Which book can’t you stop talking about ?
Das Buch ist auf deutsch unter dem Titel „Das Haus“ im Klett-Cotta Verlag erschienen.
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So unglaublich das klingen mag, haben wir doch einmal in einer Moabiter WG ein Zimmer entdeckt, das vorher nicht da war.
Less spooky … we turned it into a gallery displaying the paintings we found in there. Room Of Posing we called it …
I’m taking some liberty by not limiting myself to one book. Christmas and your really cool Advent Calendar evidently have sent me on a nostalgia trip because I keep going back to books I read as a kid or young adult. The books I couldn’t stop talking about – and still think about – are books that gave me a new perspective on something. They personalized the abstract by turning something I knew into something I felt: pain, anger, indignation. This is the first time I’ve put them side-by-side (so to say) and in doing so, I realize they all have a common theme – keep fighting against whatever is wrong, unfair, or unjust. You might not win, but not even trying is worse than losing. Here they are: “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee) fighting against injustice, discrimination and being afraid of what is different, “Death Be Not Proud” (John Gunther) fighting against losing somebody you love very much, “The Wall” (John Hersey) fighting to survive genocide, “Inside South America” (John Gunther again!) – not a novel and not about fighting per se, but it opened my eyes and convinced me we should be fighting to change American politics toward Latin America.
So glad you didn’t limit yourself. I made some interesting discoveries with your recommendations – thanks a lot 🙂
… couldn’t stop talking about … meine ersten Begegnungen mit Hermann Hesse. Es gab jemanden, der das in Worte fasste was ich fühlte! Ich war nicht mehr allein! Ich war so überwältigt, ich musste diese Worte ständig mit jemandem teilen. Ich hab nicht jeden damit erreicht, aber egal … 🙂
The book I could not stop talking about for months is „Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World“. I recommended to all who would listen and still today, 2 years after having read it, I bring it up to new acquaintances.
I will totally check this out now. Sounds intriguing … 🙂
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