The Big Read: House of Leaves

Maybe you have always wanted to read House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski or maybe not. Buuut, here is the chance now to read it and discuss it with others. Words Worth Blog presents the first of possibly more Big Reads Month.
I stole this idea from Bookshelvesofdoom because there are books out there that I would LOVE to get to, but they seem daunting either in length or in content. And, I just want to know that there are others reading it at the same time as I am. Like a little online book club.
So pick it up, give it a once through and join us on this blog twice in June to discuss your reactions to House of Leaves. Here is the schedule:

June 16th: read the first half of the book (specific chapter to come)
June 30th : finish it off

Also, pop by the blog throughout the month to follow links to articles and interviews associated with the book. I am about 30 pages into this book and it is pretty compelling. I am rapt to know what happens, what all of its answers are. A unique story so far.

House of Leaves: The Remastered Full-Color Edition:
"Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command.
Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.
Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.
The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams"

One reviewer says:
“This young American writer may only have one book to his credit, but it's one hell of a book: House of Leaves.House of Leaves is essentially a horror novel, but less about things that go bump in the night, and more about the existential dread latent in the tensions between knowing and not knowing, about 3 a.m. anxieties, and about the empty spaces in our awareness and apprehension of ourselves, others, and the world. The novel has strong Borgesian overtones, both in theme and in style, and even features a central character that is loosely based on the Maestro himself…”

…read entire article…

Join us in reading House of Leaves.

.Mandy.