I was recommended this book with zero context and with the first chapter being like "When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule
entry for the first day of the fifth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western halls"... I'm just letting these passage wash over me 😆. I think it's one of those you just push forward and let it cook.

Dibs on the biscuit box man lol. I'm still trying to understand this universe but did they just reference a box of Ritz crackers with a family circus cartoon on it? The rest of the world feels like a surreal painting. I'm wondering if it's post apocalyptic and the two characters are descendents of a forgotten era where mysticism has filled the vacuum of knowledge lost.

The Sixteenth Person
And You. Who are You? Who is it that I am writing for? Are You a traveller who has cheated Tides and crossed Broken Floors and Derelict Stairs to reach these Halls? Or are You perhaps someone who inhabits my own Halls long after I am dead?

Anyone else getting Microsoft Encarta '97 Encyclopedia 📕 💿 ✨ vibes?! Listing these statues in rooms upon rooms.

A white cross/ albatross has me wondering but at the same time it overall feels more like Greek mythology. There is a knowledge lost and I still think spiritualism will fill that hole. My secret hope is this is anti-religous commentary with a twist.

I was taking in stride the capitalisation of certain words to mean proper nouns like the House. But I just saw the Vicinity in title form and it's unsettling.

Just thinking... we are kinda lost in this world and getting a slow trickle of information about the space but a few times we were given a lot of clues. Like the naming of the notebooks and then the story about the albatross. This is like a puzzle meant to be figured out! Or, that is how I am reading it.

I'm on page 68 and I'm starting to think...

If you don't want to hear guesses, I will place this thought in the comments.

What in the Donnie Darko was that?! Lol well, now the stage is set. Thanks grandpa death!

Post prophet thread! What the what? My theory was in the right arena but this is a satisfying reveal. I would now recommend the book making it this far and I can't wait to finish it.

Page 126 - man, the onslaught of info we have been craving this whole time! Anyway... James. Poor James. Was he stuck between worlds? What a way to go <slight retch>

I always think "what would I do?" and pretend. Just like holding your own breath for the underwater scene in a movie to see if you could. The other would have killed me by now lol. I have a terrible poker face.

I low-key forgot; and so did Piranesi! They do not remember their own name and now I am wondering why they are called this. I suspect it's a reference to some greek myth but... do I look it up? Or let it come to me? I suspect the myth reveals a whole bunch more.

Page 161 -
If you believed this; where would you go back to the last place you felt the world communicating with you? #stoweVT'99...

My last read was the exorcist tho so I would worry standing in the river next to rt 108 would present me Captain Howdy. Be sure to close your portal kids! This turned out to be an excellent fall read (I go spooky this time of year).

Page 173,... well, Steven Moffat anyways

Page 176

CREEPY... I can't help but think as I sit in the Barcelona Flat reading this and KETTERLEY WAS BORN HERE?!

For context: I am a US born citizen who grew up in New England and three years ago moved my family to BARCELONA?! Chills y'all.

WAVE...
Even tho I knew? It still slaps lol....

Great ending. No notes. I really connected with the practice of returning to a time when nature was an active participant in your own innocence. It also reminded me of Indra's Net- and recognizing yourself in everyone and everything around you. It's all perfect. The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its kindness infinite.