I never finished House of Leaves. I found the house aspects of the story really interesting, but all the parts outside it (the tattoo artist guy) I found insufferably boring. Does it ever actually have any point to his side of the story? It felt like half the book was a waste of time, but maybe it pays off in the end?
This is exactly how I felt reading the book. If the innermost story were extracted into a standalone work, it would be excellent, even more so if it were expanded upon. All the outer frame stories were painfully uninteresting to me. I'd suggest finishing the house story and just skipping the rest, as I felt similarly to you and got nothing out of the rest, but really enjoyed the house stuff.
