Have you ever bought a book that had a very unusual physical format?

Does a Torah scroll count? Actually, I never bought one, so no.

Choose Your Own Adventure? I love those. I used to cheat all the time. The only other ones I can think of are those children’s books that came with the sound buttons along the side of the pages.

@Rarebear : Yes, scrolls count.

I have a children’s book with a finger puppet that goes right through the book, and thus “participates” in the story.

@py_sue : I’m not familiar with those books. Are they unusually bound in some way?
@zenele : That sounds very cute.

Wha? I thought everyone knew about those. They’re small chapter books wherein you are the “adventurer” and you have to make decisions at the end of the chapters. Go one way or the other, trust or don’t trust his person, etc. and it sends you to a different page number than the next one. If you’re on page 13 and you go with this person, it will send you to page 52.
You can’t read it cover to cover like most books. You pick the storyline and the goal, essentially, is to make to the end of the story without dying or getting sent home. Cheating meant going back to where you were and making the other decision to continue the story.

@py_sue : Yep, that’s sounds unusual enough to qualify and like a lot of fun.

an Asian book that reads right to left back to front

Sure. There are two classic kid’s books: “Pat the Bunny” where the child touches different surfaces and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” where the child puts his finger in the hole and it becomes the worm in an apple. My kids loved them.

Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock. It’s about two artists who live in opposite ends of the world and have never met. Sabine can “see” his artwork and sends him a postcard. He sends one back. The whole story is told through their correspondence. Some pages have an envelope glued to it that contains a letter to be taken out and read.

Not as clever as the ones mentioned above, but it is an intriguing story.

Cradle to Cradle The book was made of a polymer so it was pretty indestructible and water proof. Great book too.

I have several really cool pop-up books and a cartoon collection in 3D. Love those books.

Well, House of Leaves was put together pretty oddly. The text on the pages was often in running vertically, or in shapes, or used different styles of text, or some pages had only several words or no text at all. It was put together that way to give the reader a pretty creepy vibe, which (at least in my case) it achieved. Here is an image of what I’m talking about.

House of Leaves…

Definitely House of Leaves.

Yes, but I was given it—I didn’t buy it: The Original of Laura, “by” Vladimir Nabokov. The quotes around “by” are deliberate. I described it here (scroll down). I think it’s safe to say that the format of this book is unique.

@Jeruba : Fascinating. I will look for that book.

@Jeruba, I’m a fan of Nabokov. I’m going to check that out.

In all fairness, I can’t recommend purchasing it.

Really? Any particular reason?

I don’t want to derail this thread. My comments are in the thread I linked.

Gotcha. Thanks Jeruba.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities that seems like a really fuckin annoying read.

Not really printed odd or anything, but Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk counted the pages backwards. I thought it was pretty cool since it was counting down to something as the story went though i dont want to give away what in case some havent read it.

Another one for Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence.
@Pied_Pfeffer Wasn’t there some business about them not actually being able to meet up, due to some space/time weirdness?

@Nullo Yes, and their story is continued in several other books. I haven’t read them yet. They are being treated like a decadent box of chocolates…something to be savored over time.