Unique Styles - Yay or Nay?

?ti daer uoy dluow, siht ekil gnihtemos etorw enoemos fI

What about something in a weird font? Or something in huge print (not large print, HUGE print)? Or something written in dyslexic form?

If something was written in unique font stylings, but the style had a point to the book, would you read it? Or would it turn you away?

I am lost!
What are you trying to say?

Sorry

Yes, I would. But that's because I have.


House of Leaves, a horror story by Mark Danielowski, is about a house that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. The physical dimensions of the outside of the house make it impossible for the "nine and a half minute hallway" to exist--and yet it does. As the characters go deeper into this hallway, which seems to change at every turn, and deny the laws of the real world, the text of the book changes as well... Some lines fall, in areas where the sections are smaller, less words are on each page. At one point "the screen goes blank" (something like that, I forget exactly) followed by a white page. There is also a story-within-a-story, due to the foot notes. It's an amazing book, and it is written in such a bizarre way. It was really good. And I know that sounded like a review/trying to sell you kind of thing, but heck, perhaps it was? It was a great book. ^_^ Just be forewarned it's really long, haha. And in the end, might make no sense... #_#

Well, I was just studying DaVinci, so I wouldn't find it a problem, what with his mirror writing and all (not that I can speak Italian and read it, though); I think it'd be interesting, and I'd get used to it after a while.
I would not want to read something in all caps. That's just obnoxious. But even a weird font might not be so bad. As long as it wasn't bolded or anything.

House of Leaves comes to mind. As the main character got progressively lost in the depths of his house, the placement of words on the page got progressively more... confused and claustrophobic, i suppose you could say. And there, it was cool. Because it had a point. If it didn't have a point, I don't think I would like it. (EDIT: Suz beat me to it XD)

Hehe, house of leaves was really impressive for that, huh Melja? It was incredebly affective, because so many times I wanted to hide the book under my bed, lock my doors, and never leave. I was so scared. It made me feel like I was falling. It was really good. I just wish his second book was better. XD I haven't actually read it, but a lot of people said it was just a waste.

And because Wikipedia has an article for everything...

this site might be interesting to read through: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodic_literature

It depends on the book. If it lends itself to the story effect, then I think I'd read it. If I flicked through and saw a weird font style, then I might be interested to read. All of it written backwards is too much, though.

It can go either way.

There's a reason books use certain fonts, sizes and spacing. You (or your typographic designer) would have to be extremely careful to make sure that the font was still legible and readable (which mean different things in design) if you wanted it to be interesting looking.

One of my favorite examples of playing with typography was in So Yesterday, where the book showed an example of Futura Garamond's columns. I won't spoil it if you haven't read it, because figuring out how to read them is fun.

So, long story short, I would still read it if it were well designed.

.oN

Actually, if it doesn't make it terribly difficult to read and there's an actual purpose to the weird font, then I probably wouldn't care.