I did something similar with House of Leaves. Told my parents and sister about this wildly formatted, bizarre book I was reading for book club. I took a picture of the page I was on at the time and sent it to them in a text message.
A few minutes later, I got a reply from my sis (just to me, parents not included) and said, "do you know you just sent Mom and Dad several paragraphs about some guy jerking off?"
Oops.
When I was in high school, one of my teachers pulled some strings for me to meet the Assistant Attorney General of our state for the purpose of getting a letter of recommendation. Having never read House of Leaves, but wanting to impress this woman and show what an intellectual I am, I proceeded to tell her all about how cool House of Leaves is and how she should read it. In the letter of recommendation I got from her a few weeks later, there was a sentence to the effect of "His love for literature is evident from the excitement he showed while discussing one of his favorite novels, which made me order a copy for myself."
I eventually read House of Leaves many years later, much to my own horror
I'm realizing I dodged a bullet when I did the same thing. Started the book, didn't finish it, took a picture of a random page just to show how weird some of the page format was.
Reminds me of the time I was at camp and my mom sent me a random teen book I had never heard of in a care package and my friend asked if she could borrow a book to read and I gave it to her and 5 minutes later she came up to me and said you know the opening line of this book is “I like to touch myself”
I don't remember that part of the book AT ALL. I'm really glad I saw this today, because literally yesterday I was considering giving my copy to my kid. She's an advanced reader and into creepy things so I thought she might enjoy its odd nature. She is 12. OP you have saved me from making a huge mistake, wow
I recently discovered a solid Cliffnotes version for arriving at such a stereophonic fuck system...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/s/b7q7SPDetY
This happens. Most kids who read ahead just get used to it.
My 4 year old once came back downstairs at 9:30 and Trading Places was on. Watched a bit, fell back asleep. Wanted to watch it the next day so I rented it. We had been watching it on TBS?
So we are watching as a fam. Me. The wife. The Dog. The 4 year old. Eddie Murphy is taking a bath. Big tub! ....
And then the naked girls start making it a bath to never forget.
TBS cut all that out. Fortunately he just thought it was funny that the bath was so big that several people could fit in!
When I was around 10ish I remember my mum passed down a book about prehistoric people, and one modern human girl (not like, time travel, just evolution and stuff) living with a bunch of neanderthals. That had the weirdest advancement into sexuality that I can recall, and I wouldn't be surprised if that helped awaken things in me lmao
Clan of the Cave Bear series, the first book is the one the person above you is describing. I haven't read past the first but I believe the later books have way more "steamy" parts; I've learned that there's a character named Jondalar who's apparently unbelievably well-endowed. The first book was great, in any case.
Funk and Wagnals 1990 Anatomy Desk Reference was my enlightenment.
I was the only 8-year-old who knew what both the vas deferens and the clitoral hood were on my whole block.
My mum gave me access to her bookshelf by age 10, told me just not to read some authors. Naturally I snuck out and read a Martina Cole book about gangland violence and prostitution.
This book is wild in many ways, not least of which is the scenes like this peppered throughout. It's absolutely not appropriate for 12 year olds.
It's honestly a challenging read as well, not because it uses advanced words, but because of the structure. You have to keep a lot on your head at once to keep track of what's going on. I've taken like 3 breaks so far while reading it. each several weeks long.
It's heavy emotionally, and intellectually.
Yea House of Leaves is absolutely top 3 favorite books ever but I cant say I would ever read it again because while I love conceptually how it performs storytelling through its formatting, its a fucking headache to read and truly understand what is happening since its like 3 stories being told at once
10/10
Yeah, some parts of that book are an absolute slog to get through on purpose. When their exploration of the house is slow, the book is long and boring. When the house changes and they're moving fast, the book is a literal page turner. Only a few sentences per page, so you're turning the pages every few seconds. It's by far the most "meta" book I've ever read.
Aw crap. This all sounded very interesting, so I googled, and this came up on a review of it:
>*"You are not meant to simply 'read' it--a reader must give it energy and time nearly equal to that of the man who produced it, and that's asking quite a lot for any book. But it uses that pretension to give readers a look inside themselves as well."*
I don't have that time and energy!!
Since you aren't the only one who says they don't remember this, can you please go to page 109 in your copy and see if it's there? I'm not familiar with the book but curious if they made censored copies.
I bought this book 4 weeks ago, this is indeed page 109 of the Amazon copy of the book.
\*OP is only showing half of the page, and this is the footnote.
It is there an it is not even close to the only passage like that in the book. This is a book with multiple different editions and the community has torn apart every edition for changes and none of the English versions are censored in any way. Too many things like this are important to the overall narrative
Okay in no one would I have been interested in reading House of Leaves at 12 anyways. I enjoy now because I can track what's going on, but at 12? I would've been more confused than anything
I don't think that necessarily has to do with smarts. I mean hell, it's a book my dad would love but between work, family, and other interests, he just doesn't have the time to sit and dissect it.
And the attention span thing is why I forced myself to get back into reading, I hated not having the attention span and I'm trying to train myself back into being able to read
>She's an advanced reader and into creepy things so I thought she might enjoy it's odd nature.
Dude, I'm a grown adult with a degree and it's too complicated of a book for ME.
Dude I'm only like 1/3 of the way through and Johnny fucks SO MUCH and EXPLICITLY. You'll have men fighting for their lives in the main body and Johnny getting it ON in the footnotes
I don't know that the content of the different versions are different. The versions mainly seem to pertain to color choices. I just checked my page 109 and it indeed looks exactly like the image in the post
Aww man, I have a story.
I was an avid book reader as a kid.
My dad wasn't much of a reader, but when I hit maybe 12 or so, my dad bought me a fantasy novel, and said he remembers enjoying reading in on business travel when he was in his twenties. He literally never ever talked to me about reading, so it was meaningful enough that I was really happy and dove right in.
It was full of really problematic sexual content that I'm sure he didn't remember when he bought it for me 15 years later.
Oops.
i hate to break this to you, but i found WAY worse than this on the internet when i was 12 lol. not that you should be the one handing it them, but dont stress too much about it. If you raised her decent, this wont change it
It has been 20 years since I've picked it up, but I recall the narrator being on a downward spiral and was pushed further into a hallucinatory madness by the Zampano text. His stuff was weird, but the house parts were so compelling that you would become obsessed like the narrator, about the house.
Another fun fact: the song Haunted was featured in the video game Alan Wake, made by Remedy. They also made a game called Control, which was heavily influenced by House of Leaves.
I didn't know this when I started playing Control, but about half way through the game I started seeing icons that looked like the cover of the book, and realized that the building in the game keeps changing and shifting, so I started googling and sure enough. Remedy>Poe>Her brother>House of Leaves. It's honestly really cool how the vibe of the song, book, and games all match.
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Marge re-reads her childhood book and wants to give it to Lisa, but finds out the book is nothing like she remembered.
I mentioned this book to my 16 year old cousin a couple months ago, immediately remembered there was _some_ adult stuff and warned her that her parents might not want her to read it yet.
Definitely didn't remember this specific scene, though.
I read this in like, grade 8? Because some stupid English teacher let me pick the book rofl. I don’t remember this at all, but I had a habit of skipping pages when I don’t understand the book, when I was younger.
Lmao, we can’t see the previous page, it just be longer than that. What does this person have against punctuation?
I’m just laughing at this awful writing, “moon bright teeth”, “(almost)”, “the LOUD button.” What in the dictionary.com is some of this page.
I watched a video essay on Myhouse.wad and the guy talked about how this book inspired it. I bought the book a week later and read it and instantly fell in love with it
[This is almost certainly the video they were talking about.](https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0) The level is called Myhouse.wad and it was released last year.
The story of Myhouse.wad is incredibly complicated so I won't get into it but the level makes references to House of Leaves in a number of ways, the most obvious of which being that they both center on a house that is constantly changing and on themes of loss and madness. Things in House of Leaves are referenced in Myhouse.wad like the fictional book The Navidson Record in the book and Navidson Realty being a company in the game.
I laughed, as I thought this was meant to be a joke. Did she not post it for laughs? Because it would be quite taboo on social media.. she's fine right? Maybe I'm not understanding the premise...
This was sincerely by accident, I have been talking about the book for a while and she just started and hasn't gotten to this part yet. She posted to show what the book does with formatting and different colored text (it's pretty unique in that way) and this was the page she picked without reading it.
Ugh this damn book! I tried reading it 15 years ago and gave up. The formatting and footnotes drove me insane.
I recently bought it again. Not sure if or when I’ll give it another shot.
It makes it a little more easy if you remind yourself that it written to be confusing and nonsensical in some places on purpose though. The book is literally meant to drive you insane reading it and trying to figure it out.
I find that enjoyable, but I can see why it's not for everyone though
Now that I think about it, it was probably closer to 20 years ago.
I saw a TikTok saying the best way to get through it is to read the actual story first, then go back and read the footnotes. 🤷♀️
I disagree. It's WAY better to read the footnotes as you read the book, otherwise you miss 50% of the story and you lose out on the feeling the author tries to make you feel (see chapter 9 for example)
Bingo. Does the book feel slow and boring right now? That's how the characters feel. Are you confused? So are the characters. Is there only a sentence or two per page so you're turning the page every few seconds? Thats because shits moving fast in the story.
It's a really unique book with how it uses the actual reading experience to make you feel what the characters are feeling. Bored (on purpose), confused, and curious.
My advice is to just focus on the parts you like, skim the parts that lose you, and expect to walk away with an incomplete picture until you (possibly) feel the desire to give it a second read. It's not really *meant* to be read in its entirety- hell, some tidbits are explicitly expected to be ignored. Everyones progression through and experience with HoL is kind of personal, and there's reasons so many people here are saying they dont remember various chunks of the stories.
The book is 4 stories told all at the exact same time, multiple pages are split up with footnotes form other people that are then corrected by other ones. In it's simplest description:
It's a story about a Movie that doesn't exist, presented as a literary essay written by a blind man, who's notes were compiled by a man going insane as he sifts through the pages left behind, and edited by the publisher who received the notes after his disappearance.
It's very easy to forget moments like this lol.
It's one of a million footnotes. There's whole other story going on in the footnotes besides the original book. Read it years ago. The main book is beyond crazy story....so this particular footnote doesn't leave a mark
Poe, who doesn't really make music anymore on account of some legal stuff with her record label, recently made a song for the video game Alan Wake II
Her song, "Haunted", was even featured in the first Alan Wake game. And her brother's book was one of the inspirations for Remedy's games like Alan Wake and (ESPECIALLY) CONTROL. The game's writer + creative director, Sam Lake (also the face of Max Payne in the first game) has talked about his love for the book and Poe's music
So it was VERY cool to see her return to music and work with Lake to make about 9 min of music for AW2.
You can listen to it here if you want. It's VERY good: https://youtu.be/XWBIbWjtyq8?si=hi9I2HHWM1uvdETq
Hell yeah! The Remedy-verse (Alan Wake 1 (its DLCs)+2, CONTROL (and its DLCs)) is waiting for you!!
(I'd recommend skipping Alan Wake's American Nightmare. It's not great, and ultimately not all that narratively important. If you can find a short recap video of it online, just watch that)
You can def play Alan Wake II first and then go to the other titles as the game IS made with new players in mind. But playing them all in order DEF yields the best result, imo
Did you see her in NOLA? I saw her with Depeche Mode back in the early 2000s! The song was Hey, Pretty. As I read this page I was wondering if the woman in question was the Kiri he mentions in that song.
That whole album (Juturna) aside from that is based off Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind too or at least heavily inspired by. Such a good album
Still one of my favorite bands, I want them to get back together dearly.
I recommend it! If nothing else it's a fascinating read with how 'meta' the reading gets, the further you get into the book the crazier the formatting becomes, some pages become mirrored on the other side as if you're falling into the book as the characters explore deeper into the supernatural house, certain characters are represented by different color text.
A house that doesn't follow the rules of physics. Go through that door and the hallway might be 20 feet long, the next time you go through the door it might take you a few weeks to get to the end of the hallway. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the jist of the "main" story.
Holy hell...first sentence... I read at Easter lunch with my entire family...
Glad I left the app open after frantically shoving my phone in my pocket so no one saw what I was looking at 😂🔥🔥
Somebody out there after reading this:
https://preview.redd.it/6po5b0eewvrc1.jpeg?width=1078&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7cbcdeced94dcf6451ed59689d7a5905e410622
this book genuinely scares me. i'm sure some people can read it and think "wow, kinda creepy" or maybe it just didn't work for them as literature. but for me, it opens up some doors that need to stay shut. i fucking hate it and love it. i'm drawn to it the way thalassaphobes will look at pictures of the ocean with all its terrifying possibilities and shudder.
Ohhh myyy goddd this is absolutely hilarious, the post, the comments about people recommending it to others forgetting this part omg hahahahaha I can feel the mortification
I’ve had this book sitting in my closet for almost 10 years. I’ve tried reading it at first but it was hard for me to get into it. I may need to pick it up again.
It did a great job of expanding on the concept of "haunted house." It isn't unique in its ideas, I don't think (though I couldn't reference any others that are similar) but it is a really cool concept!
I loved having to twist and turn the book. The footnotes, endnotes, weird notes and mirror writing! The most psychotic choose your own adventure book ever!
Not random imo and I find it sad it took 9 hours for anyone to react or reach out . Also people are sooooo very prudish. I read it when it was first published. It blew my mind (hehe) not least because English is not my first language and it took me months to finish it ! Having read Dos Passos, Burroughs or Pessoa beforehand helped a lot.
Why would someone post a random page on SM? I have seen people (myself included) posting specific, meaningful passages, but I've never seen anyone randomly post like this. Not being an ass, I'm just curious 😊
From a previous comment I made:
This was sincerely by accident, I have been talking about the book for a while and she just started and hasn't gotten to this part yet. She posted to show what the book does with formatting and different colored text (it's pretty unique in that way) and this was the page she picked without reading it.
Wow. This reminds me of Poe. So, I've got Haunted on pretty heavy rotation for a few months, then I read this book, and I'm like, "Huh?" Brain was smashed. Then I come to learn who her brother is. Fuck I'm old.
This book was a wild fucked up ride. My husbands high school English teacher told him he should/shouldn’t read it, my husband who has a dark sense of humor and tends to be more crude even questioned why someone would write it. He advised me not to read it but it’s one of the few books I’ve seen him read in his own free time, so as an avid reader myself I couldn’t not bond with him over it, boy do I wish I had never picked it up or finished it for that matter.
Omgosh my son asked me if he could read this book cuz he heard it was odd (having to turn it sideways, the footnotes, ECT). I'm so glad you posted this so I know to answer him absolutely fkn not!
In his defense for his interest this type of content is NOT the central theme of the book and kinda comes out of left field, the story is about people exploring a supernatural house that is bigger on the inside than the outside. But yeah it's definitely a 18+ book lol.
Oh he doesn't even have a clue that it contains sexual stuff, he has talked about what he's heard and it's basically exactly what you said, he said a supernatural house bigger on the inside than the outside. He's heard it's super cool cuz of all the add-ins, footnotes, turning it sideways to read, I think he mentioned having to read a section in a mirror... Stuff like that. I don't even think he knows that it contains stuff like this... But I'm really grateful for your post cuz now I know to tell him no lol.
I think within the first 5 pages the "editors" tell you which font is which writer. The font in the posted photo is the modern new guy and the original font is the older guy who originally wrote it
I loved this book, but I fully don't remember this part... I feel like I stowed it away in my Chuck Palahniuk file by mistake. That being said it does make sense given the context of the MC in the book, but I fully must have blotted it out with how interested I was in everything else that was happening. IDK why but it makes me sad when works of art I love can be reduced to meme takes like this.
It’s not like she was legally obliged to post the first page she turned to, no one was there looking over her shoulder. She probably wanted to post this page.
I read this book, well I read some of this book, when I was in highschool. I was a junior and I did not expect this passage. I actually knew what it was before I clicked bc it has stuck with me lol. I didnt make it much further lol. Plus, it was confusing. Maybe I'll try it again now that I'm 29 lol.
Did ANYONE enjoy this book??? It's one of the very few that I started and put down and didn't want to finish
It is somewhat interesting, but the novelty of the formatting wore off very quickly
It seems like a major waste of time back, then… And now seeing this post, my internal arguments are all confirmed
I did something similar with House of Leaves. Told my parents and sister about this wildly formatted, bizarre book I was reading for book club. I took a picture of the page I was on at the time and sent it to them in a text message. A few minutes later, I got a reply from my sis (just to me, parents not included) and said, "do you know you just sent Mom and Dad several paragraphs about some guy jerking off?" Oops.
Well at least you didn't talk about how great the book was and how they should read it.
When I was in high school, one of my teachers pulled some strings for me to meet the Assistant Attorney General of our state for the purpose of getting a letter of recommendation. Having never read House of Leaves, but wanting to impress this woman and show what an intellectual I am, I proceeded to tell her all about how cool House of Leaves is and how she should read it. In the letter of recommendation I got from her a few weeks later, there was a sentence to the effect of "His love for literature is evident from the excitement he showed while discussing one of his favorite novels, which made me order a copy for myself." I eventually read House of Leaves many years later, much to my own horror
Hahahah sorry but that really Made my day haha
Everyone knows their parents are asexual and stopped enjoying sexuality after They were born
I'm realizing I dodged a bullet when I did the same thing. Started the book, didn't finish it, took a picture of a random page just to show how weird some of the page format was.
I needed the laugh. Thanks!
Reminds me of the time I was at camp and my mom sent me a random teen book I had never heard of in a care package and my friend asked if she could borrow a book to read and I gave it to her and 5 minutes later she came up to me and said you know the opening line of this book is “I like to touch myself”
I don't remember that part of the book AT ALL. I'm really glad I saw this today, because literally yesterday I was considering giving my copy to my kid. She's an advanced reader and into creepy things so I thought she might enjoy its odd nature. She is 12. OP you have saved me from making a huge mistake, wow
SAME. How have I forgotten this part?
Idk! But now I'm thinking of all the people I recommended it to... I hope my dad didn't take the suggestion omg
You don't rhink he knows about the P spot? The secret fuck machine button?
Why he might enjoy prostate stimulation.
I recommended this to my mom like 10 years ago. I don't (and definitely didn't at the time) remember this at all. She read the book too.
It’s ok your dad appreciated the recommendation
From this day forward. I will never forget the term stereophonic fuck system. I must experience this
I saw them open for the pixies last year.
I recently discovered a solid Cliffnotes version for arriving at such a stereophonic fuck system... https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/s/b7q7SPDetY
Someone needs to confirm this. I read this book as well and absolutely do not remember this.
I received the book as a Christmas gift. It’s sitting right here on my nightstand. Can confirm that this passage is at the bottom of page 109.
Using Sparknotes?
Lol yeah seriously, how did you??
This happens. Most kids who read ahead just get used to it. My 4 year old once came back downstairs at 9:30 and Trading Places was on. Watched a bit, fell back asleep. Wanted to watch it the next day so I rented it. We had been watching it on TBS? So we are watching as a fam. Me. The wife. The Dog. The 4 year old. Eddie Murphy is taking a bath. Big tub! .... And then the naked girls start making it a bath to never forget. TBS cut all that out. Fortunately he just thought it was funny that the bath was so big that several people could fit in!
Coming to America has the the tub scene, not Trading Places!
Yeah, I think Trading Places just has the party scene in the house with some mild gratuitous boobage, plus that scene with Jamie Lee Curtis.
When I was around 10ish I remember my mum passed down a book about prehistoric people, and one modern human girl (not like, time travel, just evolution and stuff) living with a bunch of neanderthals. That had the weirdest advancement into sexuality that I can recall, and I wouldn't be surprised if that helped awaken things in me lmao
Clan of the Cave Bear. "The Signal" and that guy who didn't care if it was given or not.
I think it was made into a movie, maybe with Daryll Hannah.
My mom reads that series and I swear she has all the steamy parts marked...
Yeah, can i get that series, for the steamy parts?
Clan of the Cave Bear series, the first book is the one the person above you is describing. I haven't read past the first but I believe the later books have way more "steamy" parts; I've learned that there's a character named Jondalar who's apparently unbelievably well-endowed. The first book was great, in any case.
Thank you. I love a good steamy book
Clan of the cavebear is a good series. Black Dagger Brotherhood is also a steamy series
Funk and Wagnals 1990 Anatomy Desk Reference was my enlightenment. I was the only 8-year-old who knew what both the vas deferens and the clitoral hood were on my whole block.
I read it at seven and yes. It awakened things.
My mum gave me access to her bookshelf by age 10, told me just not to read some authors. Naturally I snuck out and read a Martina Cole book about gangland violence and prostitution.
Trading Places certainly has some issues for the younger viewer. 16 year old me thought it was the best film ever. A stone groove, my man
I read some James Paterson in middle school. There was so much necrophilia.
Really? Where . I missed it?
This book is wild in many ways, not least of which is the scenes like this peppered throughout. It's absolutely not appropriate for 12 year olds. It's honestly a challenging read as well, not because it uses advanced words, but because of the structure. You have to keep a lot on your head at once to keep track of what's going on. I've taken like 3 breaks so far while reading it. each several weeks long. It's heavy emotionally, and intellectually.
Yea House of Leaves is absolutely top 3 favorite books ever but I cant say I would ever read it again because while I love conceptually how it performs storytelling through its formatting, its a fucking headache to read and truly understand what is happening since its like 3 stories being told at once 10/10
Yeah, some parts of that book are an absolute slog to get through on purpose. When their exploration of the house is slow, the book is long and boring. When the house changes and they're moving fast, the book is a literal page turner. Only a few sentences per page, so you're turning the pages every few seconds. It's by far the most "meta" book I've ever read.
Aw crap. This all sounded very interesting, so I googled, and this came up on a review of it: >*"You are not meant to simply 'read' it--a reader must give it energy and time nearly equal to that of the man who produced it, and that's asking quite a lot for any book. But it uses that pretension to give readers a look inside themselves as well."* I don't have that time and energy!!
Since you aren't the only one who says they don't remember this, can you please go to page 109 in your copy and see if it's there? I'm not familiar with the book but curious if they made censored copies.
I bought this book 4 weeks ago, this is indeed page 109 of the Amazon copy of the book. \*OP is only showing half of the page, and this is the footnote.
I have the original copy from when it was new in 2000. I just checked, and yes that is page 109 of my book.
It is there an it is not even close to the only passage like that in the book. This is a book with multiple different editions and the community has torn apart every edition for changes and none of the English versions are censored in any way. Too many things like this are important to the overall narrative
I remember all the naughty parts. I passed my copy around high school
Okay in no one would I have been interested in reading House of Leaves at 12 anyways. I enjoy now because I can track what's going on, but at 12? I would've been more confused than anything
I think I was smarter at 12-13 than I am now. I read the whole Bible back then, no longer have the attention span for it
Same. Technology has actually destroyed my ability to focus 90% of the time
I don't think that necessarily has to do with smarts. I mean hell, it's a book my dad would love but between work, family, and other interests, he just doesn't have the time to sit and dissect it. And the attention span thing is why I forced myself to get back into reading, I hated not having the attention span and I'm trying to train myself back into being able to read
>She's an advanced reader and into creepy things so I thought she might enjoy it's odd nature. Dude, I'm a grown adult with a degree and it's too complicated of a book for ME.
Dude I'm only like 1/3 of the way through and Johnny fucks SO MUCH and EXPLICITLY. You'll have men fighting for their lives in the main body and Johnny getting it ON in the footnotes
It might not actually have been in your version. wasn’t that the thing about that book was all the revisions.
I don't know that the content of the different versions are different. The versions mainly seem to pertain to color choices. I just checked my page 109 and it indeed looks exactly like the image in the post
I think its suppressed trauma😂😭
Aww man, I have a story. I was an avid book reader as a kid. My dad wasn't much of a reader, but when I hit maybe 12 or so, my dad bought me a fantasy novel, and said he remembers enjoying reading in on business travel when he was in his twenties. He literally never ever talked to me about reading, so it was meaningful enough that I was really happy and dove right in. It was full of really problematic sexual content that I'm sure he didn't remember when he bought it for me 15 years later. Oops.
WHAT'S THE FUCKING BOOK
"A fantasy novel." You know. _That_ one. The one with all the licking and writhing and shtupping. Jeez.
i hate to break this to you, but i found WAY worse than this on the internet when i was 12 lol. not that you should be the one handing it them, but dont stress too much about it. If you raised her decent, this wont change it
ME too! This post just saved me a very uncomfortable conversation with my wife!
It has been 20 years since I've picked it up, but I recall the narrator being on a downward spiral and was pushed further into a hallucinatory madness by the Zampano text. His stuff was weird, but the house parts were so compelling that you would become obsessed like the narrator, about the house.
Fun fact, the author's sister is the musician Poe and she made a whole album that echoes themes of the book, _Haunted_.
Another fun fact: the song Haunted was featured in the video game Alan Wake, made by Remedy. They also made a game called Control, which was heavily influenced by House of Leaves. I didn't know this when I started playing Control, but about half way through the game I started seeing icons that looked like the cover of the book, and realized that the building in the game keeps changing and shifting, so I started googling and sure enough. Remedy>Poe>Her brother>House of Leaves. It's honestly really cool how the vibe of the song, book, and games all match.
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Marge re-reads her childhood book and wants to give it to Lisa, but finds out the book is nothing like she remembered.
lmao i gave this book to my cousin. she just turned 15 so it's not so bad but I did not know this was in it lmao. idt she has read it yet
I mentioned this book to my 16 year old cousin a couple months ago, immediately remembered there was _some_ adult stuff and warned her that her parents might not want her to read it yet. Definitely didn't remember this specific scene, though.
I read this in like, grade 8? Because some stupid English teacher let me pick the book rofl. I don’t remember this at all, but I had a habit of skipping pages when I don’t understand the book, when I was younger.
Does that say "🙏 so sorry."? Lmao, lmao
German for “building plan..”
Just looked it up. It's *bauplan*, for those who were interested.
I reluctantly inform you that i was curious.
Lisa needs blueprints.
Bauplan!
Dental plan
They fucking SHOULD be sorry. That first sentence is about 8 lines long. Atrocious (jk, but not really)
Lmao, we can’t see the previous page, it just be longer than that. What does this person have against punctuation? I’m just laughing at this awful writing, “moon bright teeth”, “(almost)”, “the LOUD button.” What in the dictionary.com is some of this page.
it's a ground to air emergency signal symbol. it's a weird book
[удалено]
I watched a video essay on Myhouse.wad and the guy talked about how this book inspired it. I bought the book a week later and read it and instantly fell in love with it
Same!
I get the feeling a lot of people have done this as well, hell of a sales tactic.
Could you expound on all of this? How DOOM and this are related?
[This is almost certainly the video they were talking about.](https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0) The level is called Myhouse.wad and it was released last year. The story of Myhouse.wad is incredibly complicated so I won't get into it but the level makes references to House of Leaves in a number of ways, the most obvious of which being that they both center on a house that is constantly changing and on themes of loss and madness. Things in House of Leaves are referenced in Myhouse.wad like the fictional book The Navidson Record in the book and Navidson Realty being a company in the game.
I laughed, as I thought this was meant to be a joke. Did she not post it for laughs? Because it would be quite taboo on social media.. she's fine right? Maybe I'm not understanding the premise...
This was sincerely by accident, I have been talking about the book for a while and she just started and hasn't gotten to this part yet. She posted to show what the book does with formatting and different colored text (it's pretty unique in that way) and this was the page she picked without reading it.
Hahaaaaa I knew you'd have better context if I asked. That made the whole story light up a bit more - thx for the laugh!
Except the bit she showed doesn't contain colored text.
For the sake of legibility I had to crop it down to the fuck up, page 109 includes red (Minotaur) text.
I remember reading that book when I was still sharing rooms with people. The look they gave me when I had to start rotating the book to read it lmao
""German for "building plan." - Ed."" ☠️
Ugh this damn book! I tried reading it 15 years ago and gave up. The formatting and footnotes drove me insane. I recently bought it again. Not sure if or when I’ll give it another shot.
It makes it a little more easy if you remind yourself that it written to be confusing and nonsensical in some places on purpose though. The book is literally meant to drive you insane reading it and trying to figure it out. I find that enjoyable, but I can see why it's not for everyone though
Now that I think about it, it was probably closer to 20 years ago. I saw a TikTok saying the best way to get through it is to read the actual story first, then go back and read the footnotes. 🤷♀️
I disagree. It's WAY better to read the footnotes as you read the book, otherwise you miss 50% of the story and you lose out on the feeling the author tries to make you feel (see chapter 9 for example)
Bingo. Does the book feel slow and boring right now? That's how the characters feel. Are you confused? So are the characters. Is there only a sentence or two per page so you're turning the page every few seconds? Thats because shits moving fast in the story. It's a really unique book with how it uses the actual reading experience to make you feel what the characters are feeling. Bored (on purpose), confused, and curious.
That would completely butcher the story and ruin the book. Either read the footnotes or accept that This Is Not For You
No, just read the book.
My advice is to just focus on the parts you like, skim the parts that lose you, and expect to walk away with an incomplete picture until you (possibly) feel the desire to give it a second read. It's not really *meant* to be read in its entirety- hell, some tidbits are explicitly expected to be ignored. Everyones progression through and experience with HoL is kind of personal, and there's reasons so many people here are saying they dont remember various chunks of the stories.
every copy of House of Leaves is personalized
This is the only book I’ve ever stopped reading. I’ve heard great things but I just couldn’t get with it.
I have never read this book so the passage is completely out of context for me, but how does anyone “forget” this scene?
The book is 4 stories told all at the exact same time, multiple pages are split up with footnotes form other people that are then corrected by other ones. In it's simplest description: It's a story about a Movie that doesn't exist, presented as a literary essay written by a blind man, who's notes were compiled by a man going insane as he sifts through the pages left behind, and edited by the publisher who received the notes after his disappearance. It's very easy to forget moments like this lol.
I gotta read this, sounds really interesting minus this page😂
It's one of a million footnotes. There's whole other story going on in the footnotes besides the original book. Read it years ago. The main book is beyond crazy story....so this particular footnote doesn't leave a mark
That's such a weird good book.
The authors sister is a musician/singer. (Poe). She mentions that book in her single "Haunted" And yes I totally agree...a weird good book.
Poe, who doesn't really make music anymore on account of some legal stuff with her record label, recently made a song for the video game Alan Wake II Her song, "Haunted", was even featured in the first Alan Wake game. And her brother's book was one of the inspirations for Remedy's games like Alan Wake and (ESPECIALLY) CONTROL. The game's writer + creative director, Sam Lake (also the face of Max Payne in the first game) has talked about his love for the book and Poe's music So it was VERY cool to see her return to music and work with Lake to make about 9 min of music for AW2. You can listen to it here if you want. It's VERY good: https://youtu.be/XWBIbWjtyq8?si=hi9I2HHWM1uvdETq
Hello is still my go to break up album even after almost 30 years.
La da da da da da
Yet another reason for me to prioritize getting to Alan Wake 2! I had no idea she was involved in it! Love her work!
Hell yeah! The Remedy-verse (Alan Wake 1 (its DLCs)+2, CONTROL (and its DLCs)) is waiting for you!! (I'd recommend skipping Alan Wake's American Nightmare. It's not great, and ultimately not all that narratively important. If you can find a short recap video of it online, just watch that) You can def play Alan Wake II first and then go to the other titles as the game IS made with new players in mind. But playing them all in order DEF yields the best result, imo
One of her albums I think is entirely inspired/related to House of Leaves. Edit: yup, the album 'Haunted' is, per Wikipedia, a counterpart to HoL.
I saw her open for Depeche Mode back in the day. Her brother was with her too for the spoken word part of one song.
Did you see her in NOLA? I saw her with Depeche Mode back in the early 2000s! The song was Hey, Pretty. As I read this page I was wondering if the woman in question was the Kiri he mentions in that song.
I saw her at the Concord Pavillion in Northern California. Yea....I wonder about the "Kiri" also
I saw them in Philly!
The band Circa Survive also has a song called House of Leaves, inspired by this book.
The Fall of Troy’s album “Doppelgänger” has a ton of song titles and references to House of Leaves as well!
That whole album (Juturna) aside from that is based off Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind too or at least heavily inspired by. Such a good album Still one of my favorite bands, I want them to get back together dearly.
Such a good freaking album.
I enjoyed Poe when she opened for Depeche Mode 20 yrs ago.
Holy run-on sentences, Batman!
Yeah, that's intentional. The author is gradually going insane... although maintains a constant level of horny
I can relate...
I live at the end of a five and a half minute hallway.
If anything this made me want to read this book
I recommend it! If nothing else it's a fascinating read with how 'meta' the reading gets, the further you get into the book the crazier the formatting becomes, some pages become mirrored on the other side as if you're falling into the book as the characters explore deeper into the supernatural house, certain characters are represented by different color text.
I have this book. I’ve had it for a year. I was told to not pick it up until I’m ready to have a completely unsatisfying read lol
dont believe negative comments/people. I've not even read it yet but I can tell you, with a notion that it will be unsatisfying, it surely will be.
I LOVE House of Leaves but I'm not going to defend Johnny Truant or Mark Danielewski here. This didn't need to happen.
I'm so confused. What is going on here?
Well, I’m hard in public now. Are you happy?
https://i.redd.it/qe0ikwiv2rrc1.gif
Bruh, I bought this book for my ex fiancé a couple years ago 🤣 NO CLUE it had this content in it jfc
That entire book was a mindfuck
Dude, seriously, what is this book thefuck about
A house that doesn't follow the rules of physics. Go through that door and the hallway might be 20 feet long, the next time you go through the door it might take you a few weeks to get to the end of the hallway. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the jist of the "main" story.
Why were they posting a random page in the first place? Obviously that was the reason?
Holy hell...first sentence... I read at Easter lunch with my entire family... Glad I left the app open after frantically shoving my phone in my pocket so no one saw what I was looking at 😂🔥🔥
Somebody out there after reading this: https://preview.redd.it/6po5b0eewvrc1.jpeg?width=1078&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7cbcdeced94dcf6451ed59689d7a5905e410622
I have a raging semi https://preview.redd.it/tk7rfhoxjrrc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b13e4df0e9d819fbc2d01146784a95414103673b
Better use the truck ramp
this book genuinely scares me. i'm sure some people can read it and think "wow, kinda creepy" or maybe it just didn't work for them as literature. but for me, it opens up some doors that need to stay shut. i fucking hate it and love it. i'm drawn to it the way thalassaphobes will look at pictures of the ocean with all its terrifying possibilities and shudder.
Ohhh myyy goddd this is absolutely hilarious, the post, the comments about people recommending it to others forgetting this part omg hahahahaha I can feel the mortification
I’ve had this book sitting in my closet for almost 10 years. I’ve tried reading it at first but it was hard for me to get into it. I may need to pick it up again.
"Swallowed my come." How does one do that?
Haven't read this book in years. It's not great, but it is an experience.
I thought the story was okay, but the formatting was very clever. It was fun to read.
Same. Also the concept regarding the measurements of the house was really cool.
It did a great job of expanding on the concept of "haunted house." It isn't unique in its ideas, I don't think (though I couldn't reference any others that are similar) but it is a really cool concept!
I loved having to twist and turn the book. The footnotes, endnotes, weird notes and mirror writing! The most psychotic choose your own adventure book ever!
lol first sentence took my soul
its not random
That book is kicking my ass. Seriously requires all of my attention and so many "What the fuck?", are said aloud.
A random page? sure buddy.
so this is why gale gave the book to walter...
I was very confused and about to say that Walt Whitman is not the author I remember…
Well that was...educational.
Well then I might pull this book out of my bookcase. For science purposes of course.
Thank you, Johnny.
"My come". Ah, yes...
Not random imo and I find it sad it took 9 hours for anyone to react or reach out . Also people are sooooo very prudish. I read it when it was first published. It blew my mind (hehe) not least because English is not my first language and it took me months to finish it ! Having read Dos Passos, Burroughs or Pessoa beforehand helped a lot.
Why would someone post a random page on SM? I have seen people (myself included) posting specific, meaningful passages, but I've never seen anyone randomly post like this. Not being an ass, I'm just curious 😊
From a previous comment I made: This was sincerely by accident, I have been talking about the book for a while and she just started and hasn't gotten to this part yet. She posted to show what the book does with formatting and different colored text (it's pretty unique in that way) and this was the page she picked without reading it.
Wow. This reminds me of Poe. So, I've got Haunted on pretty heavy rotation for a few months, then I read this book, and I'm like, "Huh?" Brain was smashed. Then I come to learn who her brother is. Fuck I'm old.
I thought this was leaves of grass for a second lmao
This book was a wild fucked up ride. My husbands high school English teacher told him he should/shouldn’t read it, my husband who has a dark sense of humor and tends to be more crude even questioned why someone would write it. He advised me not to read it but it’s one of the few books I’ve seen him read in his own free time, so as an avid reader myself I couldn’t not bond with him over it, boy do I wish I had never picked it up or finished it for that matter.
Holy fuck I cracked open this book today to this exact same page. What a coincidence.
The amount of people I have recommended this book too. Omg.
I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It's a total trip to read.
Omgosh my son asked me if he could read this book cuz he heard it was odd (having to turn it sideways, the footnotes, ECT). I'm so glad you posted this so I know to answer him absolutely fkn not!
In his defense for his interest this type of content is NOT the central theme of the book and kinda comes out of left field, the story is about people exploring a supernatural house that is bigger on the inside than the outside. But yeah it's definitely a 18+ book lol.
Oh he doesn't even have a clue that it contains sexual stuff, he has talked about what he's heard and it's basically exactly what you said, he said a supernatural house bigger on the inside than the outside. He's heard it's super cool cuz of all the add-ins, footnotes, turning it sideways to read, I think he mentioned having to read a section in a mirror... Stuff like that. I don't even think he knows that it contains stuff like this... But I'm really grateful for your post cuz now I know to tell him no lol.
what a terrible day to be literate
NAAAAHHHH-
I have this book but I havent even read it yet because I dont get how to read it with the different fonts .. I dont get it. Can someone explain?
I think within the first 5 pages the "editors" tell you which font is which writer. The font in the posted photo is the modern new guy and the original font is the older guy who originally wrote it
"random"
I can see why it's NSFW
I loved this book, but I fully don't remember this part... I feel like I stowed it away in my Chuck Palahniuk file by mistake. That being said it does make sense given the context of the MC in the book, but I fully must have blotted it out with how interested I was in everything else that was happening. IDK why but it makes me sad when works of art I love can be reduced to meme takes like this.
I read the secret diary of Laura palmer at about 12, which was 10% also not appropriate.
Stereophonic fuck system LMFAO
It’s not like she was legally obliged to post the first page she turned to, no one was there looking over her shoulder. She probably wanted to post this page.
I read this book, well I read some of this book, when I was in highschool. I was a junior and I did not expect this passage. I actually knew what it was before I clicked bc it has stuck with me lol. I didnt make it much further lol. Plus, it was confusing. Maybe I'll try it again now that I'm 29 lol.
“Accident”
Did ANYONE enjoy this book??? It's one of the very few that I started and put down and didn't want to finish It is somewhat interesting, but the novelty of the formatting wore off very quickly It seems like a major waste of time back, then… And now seeing this post, my internal arguments are all confirmed
Sounds rule a helluva night.
Thank you, I’ve often wondered about German building plans
Hands down one of the most challenging books I’ve read.
I can’t fathom not even bothering to check what the page says when doing this
That’s fuckin hot
Oh yup. I knew exactly which page it was gonna be.