For mind blowing, utter ridiculousness you can never go past the ultimate cult classic House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Like most people (I'm lead to believe) that have read this book i heard about it from a friend of a friend at a party and the description is always the same with the sounds that aren't actually words and the miming of turning the book upside-down to read everything and the gesticulation of how truly awesome and mind blowing it is and then the "you just have to read it!"
About a year after i got this explanation i found this book in my favorite book store Crow Books in Victoria Park and it seemed to jump off the shelf and smack me in the head, yelling look at me, buy me, read me!
I complied when I flicked through and realised that it was the same book I had been told about. I was not disappointed but i was a little tramatised.
I am now so attached to this book that I keep recommending it to people but will not, for the life of me, let it out of my house for fear of it never coming back.
The plot line (if you could call it a line) and the visual format that mirrors the actions of the characters' actions and what is happening to them (whether they like it or not) comes together in such a powerfully effective manner that it just blows my mind. Not to mention the narrative within a narrative writing that just gives the most amazing layers and depths to the story. For these reasons and more I was completely unable to do my habitual multiple reading (several books at the same time) and had to use all my brain on following all the little threads.
Just amazing and blew my mind.
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