[nonameiguess]

I was thinking of House of Leaves reading the other comments here, mostly because something like an infinitely long tunnel to nowhere hidden in the walls of your house would actually be scary to me, whereas normally occupied spaces being empty and long winding indoor hallways are far more mundane. My wife has gotten into backrooms lore quite a bit in the past few years and it's always struck me as a strange thing to find eery. I've been an early morning runner for much of my life, worked overnight shifts at a theme park, closing at a mall, been in the tunnels beneath Disneyland and downtown Dallas. Worked in stores that hadn't opened yet and had nothing in them. There was nothing scary or eery about any of those things. It seems like an effect of the photographs and presentation more than the reality of the physical places. House of Leaves is scary specifically because it can't be real. Another example is something like the wormhole to 1987 and 1954 at the end of a cave in Dark. Yeah, that's scary, because nothing like that exists and you have no idea what to expect going into it.

Ironically enough, I first read this book when I worked at Disneyland, at an attraction with tunnel access, that no longer exists, and I no longer have the book because I loaned it to a girl I worked with there who never gave it back. She and I hung out in those tunnels during breaks.

Also interesting to me seeing other responses about found footage, given the guy who first recommended this book to me was a friend from college who covered his dorm room in bizarre free-form prose that switched between play style and novel style during a manic episode, then tore it all down later, set it on fire, and pieced together what survived as the strangest pseudo-poetry that somehow still had a lot of real words in it, kind of nature's "found poem." This book was probably written around the same time Blair Witch Project first came out and this guy also lived next to the real Greenway Trail in Burkittsville, which was also not particularly scary to see in person. I kind of doubt that was really the first example of a found footage film but it's the first I'm aware of. Wikipedia is saying The Connection from 1961 is the first.

[progmetaldev]

When I was younger, I went into some places that I shouldn't have (legally). For myself, something scarier is walking through offices and tunnels that look completely deserted, and then coming upon an office or room where it's clear someone has recently been there. Whether it was someone homeless looking for a place to stay, or an employee that's still on the payroll, both would freak me out far more than a completely empty space.

I started House of Leaves a couple times, but I always end up spending more time online than reading fiction. I need to actually sit down and read it. I used to read lots of fiction before my addiction to technology. Every five years or so, I go back and read Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, but it's a fairly small book to get through. I bought the House of Leaves version that has color coding and bizarre layout (not sure if that was always in every version). I suppose I spend enough time watching horror movies and playing odd games that I could afford the time to read House of Leaves.

I do watch a lot of amateur found footage films on YouTube, along with analog horror. I remember when Blair Witch Project first came out, and it reminded me of strange dreams and nightmares I've had, and I think that's part of where the attraction to liminal spaces comes from. It's something humans can relate to, but it's harder to put a specific label on the feeling you get when consuming this type of content.

[whateveracct]

House of Leaves is meant to be read with the weird layout and coloring (e.g. the word "house" always in blue)

It's a fun book! I first read it as a kid at my grandparents little condo in Mexico. I read some on the plane there and back, but the most scared I got was when I read one particular scene alone at night in the kitchen when everyone was asleep. I think it's the only time my heart rate has ever truly jumped like that reading a book.

[progmetaldev]

My book states that the coloring is in the newest version. I suppose I should go back and take a look at the copyright, in case it is the newest, but is fairly old.

I enjoy the general feeling of the book, like claustrophobia inside something that grows infinitely. That's the best way I can describe it, but I haven't gotten more than a quarter of the way through. I do need to go back and fully read it.