When Favorite-Favorites Collide!
The incredibly clever, original and often brilliantly-referential xkcd parodied one of my most favorite-favorite books today, House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski.
Beyond my love for xkcd and the book itself, I especially enjoy when there is highlighting of somewhat obscure cultural references that aren’t at all current. (It came out eight years ago.) It was one of those things that traveled through personal recommendations, in my experience. I was very fortunate to learn about this book from Matt Rossi back in 2003, and then proceeded to bully everyone I know into reading it. (Many of you still haven’t!) But I understand that a lot of people need to make the time for this kind of investment and I warn them appropriately. I actually have been meaning to re-read it for years, now, but I know that I won’t be able to concentrate on much else while I’m doing it.
It’s not exactly what you would call a light read. House of Leaves is the kind of book that contains multiple universes within its pages, as it unfolds and unfolds and you become more and more drawn in.
I haven’t had a book so effectively force me to play with it, to make me part of it’s narrative – possibly ever – but at least not since I was a child and encountered the secret worlds of monumental “classics” that made me a lifelong booknerd.
This is the kind of book that you stay up all night reading. That you call-off work to keep reading. That you want to build a fort to live in, while you attempt to finish. And most importantly, that haunts you long after you do.
I love this book. And I love xkcd for referencing it so astutely.
p.s. In case you didn’t already know this… Poe’s album Haunted is like a musical diary or scrapbook, kept alongside reading/writing/experiencing House of Leaves. And a few tracks off of Hello also kind of feel like they are related to the book as well, come to think of it, but I am not sure if that is intentional.
Tags: books & writing, comics, favorite-favorites, geeking out
Okay, the number of things we have in common is just freaky! I just read House of Leaves in June with my book club, and I too, got a real kick out of turning the book upside down and tracking the storylines through the book’s structure. The only people in my book club who didn’t hate House of Leaves were me and the guy who chose it. LOL. I fell in love with Navy and Karen; they’re so Rochester and Jane (from Jane Eyre).