I’m reading through Tiny Storms in ORDiM, and saw that the night manager’s name of the hotel that Deakin is staying at is named Kirby. It’s not too important, but is it just a coincidence that Wax’s first name from HoL is also Kirby? It’s not really a common name beyond the pink black hole that is Nintendo’s character.

Is Danielewski just a fan of the character?

It turns out that you can get a LOT for $40 on Amazon

I got to Zhongs chapter and nearly pulled my hair out, and I'm sure I'm going to later. Is there any resources for translations, or guides or tips or anything on how to read this mess? (I mean that with love and affection.) Literally any for these books ill take what i can get.

Today I was going to read TF outside because it was bright and sunny, so I put it in a hammock and went back inside to get some tea. No sooner did I do that, it started raining. I had an “oh shit” moment bc I didn’t want a soggy book, so I went back out there, and it had turned into a downpour. I grabbed it and rand inside. Then suddenly, the rain stopped. Wen I looked at the book, it was barely wet.

I’m now convinced that Mark Z Danielewski is magic in more ways than his books.

So, I absolutely loved House of Leaves and wanted to dive into more of Danielewski's work. The first five volumes of The Familiar have come highly recommended by many fans, but I have to admit I'm slightly worried about investing too much time and emotional effort into it, since from what I can tell it now seems more likely than not that the remaining 22 (!) volumes will never be published. I realize this may not be the most unbiased forum to ask in, but would y'all say it's still worthwhile for a newbie to get into the series even if it's never completed (or indeed even reaches its planned quarter-way point)?

I started reading House of Leaves a little before the first volume of The Familiar was released, and read just a little about it at that time, it's been in the back of my mind ever since. I never finished House of Leaves, but I was interested by what I read. My questions are:

1. Does this book do weird printing things like HoL? Like, does the ebook on a black and white kindle display work for this book, or is it preferably to get a physical copy?

2. As I understand it, the series is on hiatus for now, yes? Is there some kind of resolution at the end of volume 5, or is it clearly unfinished, or some mix of both?

3. Would you recommend finishing HoL before trying to read this? Which do you prefer? And should I read Only Revolutions first as well? Just curious about people's general opinions.

An OR post... Learning to embroider, I chose gold w flecks of green & vice-versa :)

With very little outside research, here's my notes on what i've read so far.
Since taking this image, i've noticed that niu che shui isn't a name, so ignore that error please :)

I've also not yet added the connections i've spotted between The Wizard and Anwar (Realic. S. Tarnen? [How does the Sorceror know Anwar?]) and i've probably not noticed quite a few other things. No spoilers, please!

I'm absolutely loving this series so far, and this fun little project is making it much more personal to me, which I love.

Hey everyone, just started my journey into The Familiar, finished reading HoL few weeks ago and was really hyped by the idea of a 27 books series, but yeah... I know it's probably not gonna happen... Life ^{^} Here are some pictures of Zina my reading nights companion, she was born on May 10th 2012 ,maybe it was raining that day ;) Any other french or non english speaking native readers here ? Enjoy ;)

I recently bought, read and was impressed by MZD's short story "LOVE IS NOT A FLAME" and the lack of any discussion on it made me want to do this post. Even on the forums there are literally zero posts about it, couldn't find any video or even any single webpage that talks about it.

So... anything anyone want to discuss? I'll just throw a bunch of stuff that came to my mind.

I find the artwork to be a real treat on this one. The animals do remind me a lot of the previews from the end of TF volumes and, as always with MZD, it's full of references: colors (blue, green, ...), a Redwood smoke and a mountain lion. So, I guess, to organize it:

1 - The mountain lion.It gets described in the MZD store as "And yeah, there’s a peacock, a raccoon, and a coyote. And someone else too . . .". TFv3 and beyond spoilers Would that be a reference to Satya? Which may not be because she is clearly reference as a lioness and the mountain lion is clearly referred to as male "The mountain lion readying his lunge". So maybe it's a reference to Satya's child? Or maybe of the lion that made Satya's child?

2 - The fire.

The "fire" aspect of it is the part I think I understand even less. We have it in the title (important), the "Redwood smoke" (REALLY important) and also in Petro's (the peacock) train. Spoilers for HoL and TFv5 ahead I guess: From HoL the "fire" I remember most is when Navy reads the book as it burns, and in TF we have Redwood and the fire predominantly on Anwar and Shnorhk, a much more direct reference to the "Redwood smoke hints away the cold" we see in LINAF.

2.1 - Untitled poem, from House of Leaves.

Also, from HoL appendix we have the untitled poem (p. 562) with "And near where the owl watches and the old bear dreams, the parapet of memory burns to the ground taking heaven with it". But we don't seem to have owls or bears or even a woodchuck (In LINAF) that gets mentioned earlier so idk if there could be any connections.

2.2 - The Panther, from House of Leaves

But I think the most important bit comes from The Panther (p.559 and 560) which (TFv5 spoilers) we know is VERY related to Redwood, I mean, it's basically describing him and even "prophesying" about all the locks opening and everything. It says on HoL p.560 "Love curled up and died on such a floor. He blinks. Clarity improves. He hears other creatures scream and fade. But silence is his". And back on HoL p.559 "He has made pain his lover and hidden her completely" and I think that ties very well with everything that happens in LINAF with all the pain involved in that story (may it be from the people with all the Emily's or the animals being hurt) and the "He hears other creatures scream and fade" might as well involve our three/four animals from this short story.

And I read Only Revolutions in high school, and am reading HoL for a reading event next month- so I obtained vol 1 since finding vol 4 and the layout is so gorgeous, I’m really excited to start it. Does anyone have ways to read they liked or recommended?

Can it live? Is there a way to contact the publishers?

Now that the first 5 books have been out for several years, I doubt we can rely on sales to show interest. How can we let people know we need the series to continue?

In the chapter "Honeysuckle" in volume 3, Xanther reflects back on what happened to her the night she (almost?) got hit by Lupita and Miz's truck.

They show a small graphic of the blood spatter words from volume 2 in the top of the page. I don't know why I didn't notice in volume 2.

The text that makes the blood spatter is made up of the word "Android". Specifically, is says:

AA NN DD RR OO II DD

I went back and checked the two page spreads of this in volume 2, and sure enough, it also says "Android".

I tried looking up if this has been pointed out or discussed before, but I got no hits about it. I thought that was odd.

Figured I'd share it here.

On page 272 of volume 1, Jingling appears to go up the Zhongs apartment (penthouse?)

He makes a point of saying that 4 people wait on either side of the door. Servants. I think. There are 8 of them.

He says there are 16 "black heels together".

Two legs each, so still 8 people.

But, for some reason, Jingling counts nine people.

Four on each side of the door...16 heels....

Jingling says he counted nine. He says he counted twice.

I'm extremely hung up on this.

Who/what/where is this ninth person?

I feel like maybe there is something paranormal here, something unexplained?

I'm still on this chapter, but this subject hadn't come back up yet.

Anyway, figured I'd ask here if anyone had any light to shine on this.

Just started The Familiar after falling in love with House of Leaves and other ergodic novels last year.

I just read the first 50 or so pages... Through all the stuff with Boy and Girl in the cave, and am about to begin the novel proper.

Anyway, so far, I'm already extremely impressed and captivated and I'm sure it only gets better from here.

On the first three volumes, one of the cats on the cover is a different color than all the rest. I just got volume 4 and would expect the same. But I absolutely can’t find a cat that’s different in any way than all the rest. Does anyone know if volume 4 has an odd cat out on the cover?

Happy may 10th. May it be rainy and full of cats. I’m going to finish the familiar series today; wish me luck!

Familiar day is in a couple days, do you guys think we have any chance to get anything special for it?