fiction files redux discussion

...but on your way to the fridge you stop to see what has been going on with your favourite book nerds and this thread catches your eye. You're not quite sure what to make of it, you may even wonder who the writer is and why she has chosen to start writing her thread in the second person...

Mainly it's because I've just read If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. A novel made up of beginnings of novels and narrated in the second person. I cannot recall reading any other novel written in the second person. It was quite intriguing, and for me, it was a very novel reading experience. I was pulled in and made a part of the story. At times there was a part of me that objected to being drawn in this way. I felt that I wasn't allowed to just sit back and observe, it felt a bit like going to see a show and being pulled up on stage for some audience participation. I've never liked audience participation and I have certainly never had any desire to be the audience participant. However, once I let go, I did quite enjoy it.

The book predominantly deals with reading, the experience of reading and to some extent analyses the reader's relationship with books. This is a topic that always sparks my interest, and I think in part this is why the second person narrative works so well. However, I am now intrigued, and I am considering something I would never normally consider; I have thought about going out and buying books with a second person narrative and altering my reading list so that I can read them now.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the use of second person narrative, and in when its use is effective?

Bright Lights, Big City was a bit precious, which I think is the risk

not sure what is gained when you start using the second person - any immediacy gained is probably traded off for the off putting nature of the voice leaving you at best right where you started and at worst with a reader who is rolling her eyes and thinking you a git