Literally the entire point of the story is that what happened at the house is being filtered through at least four unreliable narrators. Navidson chose what to film and what to avoid, Karen decided what to keep and what to cut, Zampano tells you what you hear and see, Johnny explicitly tells you he's lying and aggressively editing what you read.

The book even suggests there's no such thing as The Minotaur! It's entirely possible Johnny read Zampanos deleted notes, saw himself in the story of a monster abused and abandoned by a father figure, and started inserting descriptions into the manuscript.

But you're not supposed to know definitively whether there's a minotaur, what the labyrinth sounded like, what Zampano or Johnny made up, or whether the house even exists. An adaptation if The Navidson Record would be in direct conflict with one of the core themes of the book.

I've been trying everything. I have a character falling to their death. Ideally, it goes tipping at 15 degrees, 30, 45, 60, than dangling at 60, falling at 90. I cannot for the life of me format it properly to make it look good. Google drawing doesn't work, and neither does slides. Does anyone know how Danielewski did it? I am LOSING MY MIND.

Got some proxies from an online retailer, and am still in awe. These are the craziest proxies I've seen, and I like them even more because the cards the artist chose for the alters are very appropriate. Valgavoth, Maze of Ith, and Oubliette, are apt pairings, and I'm excited to see the look on people's daces when I play some of these. Lol

How is anything EVER supposed to hit like this again??? Besides reading it again, which I know I need to take a break from it, or I'll end up like Johnny and Pelafina. Does anyone have any suggestions for books that will hit in a similar way?

Also, who do you think wrote the book? Johnny or Pelafina? I have seen very convincing arguments for both. Please let me know your thoughts, no one else in my life has read this book and I simply must discuss it with another.

If there's anything you noticed during your second or third or whatever reading, please do tell!

The Navidson Record is the most coherent and captivating part of the novel. It's the only reason I'm still reading. It's perfectly designed for the analog horror style and artistic choices like framing, reflective structure, and tone are clearly and elaborately described by zampano. I have a clear mental image of Karen, the kids, Reston, Tom, and Holloway and his crew. The only character I find kind of enigmatic is Navidson himself.

I just don't understand how this hasn't been filmed yet. It's so perfect for a lost-media-style mockumentary adaptation and all the parts that should be shown on film are practically perfectly scripted by the book.

It's not my best work and I kinda fucked up the bottom part. however with the short amount of time i had this is the best thing i could come up with.

I was reading it during a winter break at college, when everyone else went home to be with their families. I stayed at our house, alone, where we rented out the basement, so I could continue working at the library, in the basement. I would read at work, and at home. I legit started hallucinating, becoming more and more paranoid, by the isolation, eerie emptiness, and persistent darkness from the time of year/environment. It was quite a choice.

A few years later, i was watching the movie Interview with a Vampire in my friends room. I somehow mentioned how scary this book was, how it infiltrated real life and was omnipotent. My friend said offhand something like oh yeah, havent read it, but i own it. And pointed behind me. Where i slowly, and horrified, turned around. I reluctantly grabbed it off the shelf behind me, and flipped it open. HONESTLY, it landed on a page where it said "Anne Rice. Novelist". In bold. (She wrote Interview with Vampire). I slammed the book, and noped the fuck outta there.

What are you spooky stories???!!!!?! Theres gotta be more out there!!!!!!

I read HoL last year and wasn't sure how I felt about it right after. The Navidson stuff was incredible, but I wasn't sure how to feel about Johnny. As the months went by, I couldn't stop thinking about it and kept wanting to go back and do it again, but I was curious how a book like this could be an audiobook. I love unreliable narrators, and while it took some time, I'm realizing Johnny might be one of the best examples.

I watch MC ART videos and this one is good but at one part the dude finds a base and its bigger on the inside. The main characters tag is Navy. Am i crazy. The story doesn't follow but the characters and some settings do.

I've heard a lot about this book, by friends, YouTube or on internet. My first "experience" with house of leaves was videos about myhouse.wad and I loved it.

But I just started reading the book and HOLY ! That’s hard, I am not talking about the paging but just the level of language and the references, Google is my dearest friend for this book. But I don’t know why, I am fascinated by this book

Hi there! English is my second language; even though I watch the movies/TV shows with English subtitles and read other books in English, I have problems with this book. I picked the book many times now, trying to read it, but every time I cannot read more than pages 25-30 because I understand nothing because of the information provided. Do you guys have any tips that could help me with this book?

The one about the water heater was interesting but most of these just reference old magazines so far. Am I missing something??

Control 1 had a lot of HOL inspiration, but Control Resonant has a mission that felt like the expedition to the House in the Navidson Record. With references to Yggdrasil, shifting, even the walls match the House description. There is a horror element in the mission as well but I don't want to spoil more.

Fully recommend the experience

Soooo, how long is it on the tape measure?

Some weeks ago I encountered this experimental short movie and it gave me very similar vibes to House of Leaves.

Has anyone seen it? Gotten the same impression as me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCqC0uMr9Oc

Hey, so I’m new to this. I haven’t gotten a physical copy and I’m waiting on it but I’m looking into the series and I noticed a strange pattern most of Johnny’s horrible situations revolve around Lude he is the entire reason this book started and he’s haunting the narrative for Johnny and Johnny seems to go in it because not only does he have nothing left, but he is extremely dependent on Lude for literally everything in his sex life. It makes me wonder how they met and how Johnny got this attached. Johnny doesn’t seem like the type of guy to have many friends makes me wonder how they met and for this technically unhealthy bond. I know that he has admiration for the man, but how did that admiration start? These questions might be answered so don’t shame me again. This is just my opinion. I don’t know if I’m the only one that noticed this.

I've read a lot of the standard recommendations, I want weirder. I've read shark texts and vellium. While I enjoyed them, what seems to be copied of the house of leaves style it only copied the idea of there being reference material for you to refer to. I just finished "The Gone World" and "There is no Antimemetics Division" and both of them really seemed way more similar to the confusing and anxiety inducing narrative of house of leaves. I'll also say I read toms crossing and it wasn't for me.

I guess what I want are more books that cause anxiety in the way house of leaves, the gone world, and there is no antimemetics division caused me to feel that out of dread in my stomach. Can anyone recommend me any more books? My next read that was recommended to me is "The Troop" and we will see.

Silly thing I noticed in my music theory assignment the other day

credit to u/frankie_mydear for the original idea!