The other day I was talking to a some people about, um, Jesus, something, and the conversation turned to books.

Oh, right, I was at a dinner party and someone saw The Secreton our hostess’s bookshelf and started talking about it. The conversation didn’t really “turn” to books, so much as I announced that I was changing the subject to other books. Which is not to say that I doubt the power of positive thinking, but to hold up your end of that conversation, you’ve really gotta be in the mood.

I wasn’t, so I started talking about a book I had just read which was fantastic, called House of Leavesby Mark Z. Danielewski. That was sort of a lie, though. I hadn’t “just read” it; I read it like five years ago. But it popped into my head for some reason (it’s the kind of book that sticks with you); it was pretty popular when it came out, and there are a ton of easy ways to talk about it, even if you haven’t read it in a while.

(Don’t believe me? The book was released in 2000, and there’s still an active discussion forum about it with over 3,200 threads and 49,000 posts. The most recent post was put up today.)

So I figured it was as good a way as any to get things moving in another direction.

Turns out that no one in the room had even heard of the book, which is not that surprising I guess, because even really popular books aren’t really that popular.

The point of all this being that this event has brought to my attention the fact that there are a ton of people out there who don’t know about House of Leavesand will never pick it up unless someone recommends it to them.

…

*Ahem*

The book is about a middle-aged photojournalist’s exploration of a haunted house, as described by a dead old man in an essay, as read by a young tattoo-artist. An expanding closet and the photojournalist’s relationship with his wife figure pretty prominently into the story as well.

My suggestion to you is that you read the book alone, at night, in a completely silent room, by the light of a single candle. (One caveat: reading it this way is much less fun if you’re susceptible to panic attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, or anything like that.)