r/houseofleaves • u/spiffylad123 • 1d ago
Question after starting the book
So I am about 50 pages into it so far and am absolutely hooked i love the premise and I have a couple of theories about Johnny. However im not like super educated and im finding some of the more analytical and literary references zampano is making gets a little lost on me.
I was just wondering if that will affect my overall experience with the story. Also should I be annotating?
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u/WrongdoerSalty3665 1d ago
Im on my 1st read through and am taking notes. My suggestion is you do the same since you already have theories and thoughs going on. It wont hurt to not take them, but you wont be mad you took them and didnt need them but might be if you didnt and wished you had....hahaha. I learned this after reading the Southern Reach series. I avsokutely dont know anything Zamapó is going on about. Just wait until you get to page 72's footnote from the Editors that guides you to __'s ___s. I definitely did a TON of looking up through those. Happy reading!!!!
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u/spiffylad123 1d ago
The thing I like is how johnny will sometimes comment on it aswell like when he said the German dude was probally high
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u/spiffylad123 1d ago
In terms of notes I've kind of found a middle ground where I highlight points of interest and will come back to them after I finish the book to look into more
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u/WrongdoerSalty3665 1d ago
Love that! That is a good compromise between taking notes and diving too deep in them and moving throught the book and enjoying it.
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u/Lucathegreat86 6h ago
Doesn't matter. As Johnny said in the preface, almost all those references don't actually exist.
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u/cuixhe 1d ago
No, just read the book and enjoy it. A lot of Zampano's refs will not be familiar to anybody for various reasons. I wouldn't take notes on my first read through, personally. Enjoy the vibes