My husband insisted I take the bed and he spent the night on the couch. We decided the dog should stay with me, since we just didn’t trust her wandering around the house at night. But my dog was super attached to my husband and was not pleased to be left away from him. At the time, I was also at least six months pregnant with my daughter. Towards the beginning of the book, we were getting ready for bed and the bed frame collapsed on one side, thanks to a faulty bed support. It could be fixed, but not at midnight. Since this whole adventure gave me a little bit of a jolt, I decided to keep reading House of Leaves before I fell asleep. Here I was, reading a book about a strange house with newly appearing doors during a particularly strong thunderstorm by myself with an anxious dog. The environment matched the creeping dread in the pages of the book. While a bit terrifying, it was perfect. The next morning, I told my husband that if a door were to suddenly appear in our house, we were going to leave immediately. It was a chance experience: the thunderstorm, furniture accident, and the book I happened to be reading. But it was an extraordinary reading experience. I hope this gives you some food for thought and lets you create or recognize your own extraordinary experiences. You don’t necessarily have to go far from home either. Maybe you can find a nice outdoor reading spot filled with brightly colored trees, listening to the wind rustling through the branches, with a Mary Oliver book of poetry. Add in hot cider and it might be somebody’s idea of perfection. Ultimately, it’s how you feel in that moment: an extra feeling of aliveness and wonder at what is before you in person and on the page. But, like many things, one person’s extraordinary reading experience may be another person’s nightmare. I am sure there are people who would have found my House of Leaves experience to be just awful and a good recipe for a bad night’s sleep. It’s a beautiful meditation on how we think about our lives, our regrets, moving forward and building a life we want. And yes, it’s about the fragility of life and the importance of living a full life. It was the perfect book for that moment. It made me realize that everyone has regrets about the paths not taken, but we have to use those regrets to build a life we do want. To me, that is an extraordinary reading experience. For other people, this might be found through reading a book about grief while dealing with the death of a loved one — or something very light-hearted when going through medical treatment. But it’s more than a pleasant reading experience: it’s something that goes deep into your bones and heart. You’ll remember it months, years, maybe even decades later. For folks who want to get the cozy side of the equation down, here are some essential items for a cozy reading experience. Or check out this guide on how to recapture that joy of reading that many of us had as a child.
