Steve reads something not Star Wars-y
Believe it or not, I just finished reading a non-Star Wars related book. And I absolutely LOVED it. In fact, I'd call it a life-changing read... except that it did not, in fact, change my life.

Nonetheless, (Poe's brother) Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves was one of the most impressive and ambitious books I've ever read. However, I might still only be inclined to suggest this book to patient outside-the-box-thinking people.

Bigger on the inside...
You see, the book is essentially a story about an increasingly mentally disturbing guy who finds a manuscript written by an increasingly mentally disturbing blind guy about an increasingly mentally disturbing photographer guy making an increasingly mentally disturbing movie from which an increasingly mentally disturbing movie is created. And this book is riddled with footnotes and footnoted footnotes that make you wonder if the book is really fiction (despite clear references that many of the references are fake).

Rather than give away enormous plot points, please just imagine a house whose insides are larger than it's outsides, fill with dysfunctional famliy and friends, and imagine the mind-fuck that creates.

Horror vs. Sci Fi
Some might call this 500-page behemoth (700 including appendices, index, and attachments) a horror story and others might lean toward Sci Fi. Still others might think of it as post-modern experimentation or some such. But, I just like to think of it as a damn creepy, well-written story that really made my sometimes-couch-potatoish mind get of it's flabby graymatter ass and work.

The beauty of this novel is matched by the Poe's pseudo-accompanying album Haunted which is equally creepy and well-written. It sounds good, too.

So, for those of you up to the challange, go read House of Leaves. For those of you intruiged but not yet sold, go buy Haunted and see if that gets you motivated.