Today's LOSTie Links, and Top 10

Here are some interesting LOST links to check out:

• SciFiWire.com interviews Nestor Carbonell, aka Richard Alpert, aka "Guyliner"
  
  
• The Lost Diary recaps Jughead minute by minute with EXTENSIVE comments to follow
  
  
• Tor.com does a round table discussion of Jughead
  
  
• having trouble keeping up with all the characters and who know who? Check out Lostpedia for lots of answers.

And here's something that appeared in the comments section of The Lost Diary recaps Jughead:

Top 10 Reasons You Know You’re a LOST Addict

10. When you see cafeteria food, you wonder if it was dropped by the Dharma people.
9. You think there’s a slight chance Desmond could be under the manhole you just walked over.
8. When you turn on your office florescent lights, you think, “Son of a . . . bitch!”
7. You’ve named your baby: Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer or Hurley.
6. You can’t help but laugh your ass off when you see someone eating a Hot Pocket.
5. You want to slap the crap out of your boss who looks a lot like Widmore.
4. You ask your travel agent if there’s anyway you can get to “The Island”.
3. There’s a no talking rule at your house on Wednesday evenings!
2. You’ve picked 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 for your lottery numbers for the last 4 years.

And finally. . .

1. You get absolutely NOTHING done at work on Thursdays!!

Last Chance for Season 3 DVD!

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline to be entered into the drawing for the Season 3 DVD is tomorrow! All you have to do to enter is commit to reading 5 books in the next year that were featured on LOST. Easy, right? Sign up here.

Episode Recap: "Jughead"

TVGuide.com says: "Locke finds out the identity of the forces who have been attacking the survivors, and Desmond searches for a woman who could be the key to help Faraday stop the island's erratic movements through time."

What do YOU have to say about this episode? Post the link to your recap in Mr. Linky below.

Crystal posted on this blog already, and I had some of the same reactions she did.

As for me, since it was my kiddo's birthday last night (and since he totally loves LOST) I let him stay up late to watch it with me. My husband thinks we're both nuts! My personal favorite part?

Locke: "Your name is Charles Widmore?"
Young Widmore: "What's it to you?"
Locke: "Nothing ... just ... nice to meet you."

WHAT?! Kiddo and I had to watch that part again, just to make sure we heard it right!

Jugheads

If you are anything like me these were your comments during LOST last night:

1. Stay on the boat Desmond! Desmond, DO NOT LEAVE PENNY!

2. Yeah right. A shaggy haired toothpick of a guy with a black string tie really looks like someone from the US military. (Thoughts echoed later in the show by cute petite British girl with rifle.)

3. Aaaaaahhh, he named his son Charlie. That's sweet.

4. They raised a baby on a boat!!????!!!!

5. *gasp* Whidmore!!????!!!!

6. *gasp* Charlotte!!????!!!!!

7. A hydrogen bomb? That explains the giant concrete hatches and fertility issues, I guess.

So here is what we know now:

It is currently 1954 and there is a small group of "Others", led at least partially by Richard, living on the island. The US military has been storming the island, I assume in an attempt to retrieve their H-Bomb. Dharma has not entered the picture yet as far as I can tell.

I have a feeling that Whidmore, knowing of the island's power......when he is booted off for insubordination or leaves or whatever.......creates Dharma and sends them to the island to discover all of it's possibilites. Or it could be that Whidmore has spent 50 years looking for the island and just found it for the first time with that freighter and Dharma is led by someone else.

I have no great new theories after last nights episode except for this:

Ben told John that he was to become the new leader of the island. Could it be that the island has therefore sent John back in time to a time before Ben arrives so that John can assume his leadership before Ben ever has the opportunity to?

What year did Ben arrive on the island? Late 60s, early 70s? Could it be that Whidmore was a leader on the island and was displaced by Ben the same way that Ben is being displaced by John?

Theresa Whats-Her-Name in the coma looked a whole lot like Charlotte....and so did the girl in the picture that Desmond found in Daniel's old lab. Are they one in the same? I think so. Remember how Desmond would pass out on the boat while he was time travelling around Scotland?

I really liked this episode, but I think it may be the first one in the history of the show that didn't have either Jack or Kate in it. Weird. It was nice to be on the island almost the whole time though. I enjoy the island story lines better than all of the suffering going on back on the mainland.

(Strange that the people with indoor plumbing, refrigeration and fast food are the ones suffering, but hey, Ben warned them not to go, right?)

Book Review: The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James

Here's an excerpt from my review of THE TURN OF THE SCREW, by Henry James.

From what I can tell ... the phrase turn of the screw originally "referred to torture where each turn of the screw amplified the pain of the subject." In modern language it usually refers to a plot twist, or more particularly "an action which makes a bad situation worse, especially in order to force someone to do something."

...

This is a brief but creepy tale and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the framework of the story, beginning as it does with a "true story" being told to friends late in the evening. I got so caught up in the story of the governess that I forgot about the tale within a tale until long after I finished the book. It's stories like this that you wish for when you're camping out in the wilderness and sitting around a fire ... or maybe you don't!

You can read the rest on my blog at this link.

Book Review: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Here's the beginning of my post on Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, the book that Desmond has saved to read before he dies:

From the introduction (Penguin Classics edition) to Our Mutual Friend:

'Most of the life in Dickens's last completed novel tends to a state of suspended animation. Nothing seems certainly dead nor entirely alive."

Well, if that motif doesn't relate to the TV series LOST . . . Fans have been trying to decide whether the survivors of Oceanic Flight are alive or dead or someplace in-between ever since the series began.

**********

The entire review was written as season three ended showing us that some of the Losties had indeed left the island, alive or moving in time or something. So, we now know that they're not "in-between" (purgatory), but do we, even in season five, know who's really dead, who's pretending to be dead, and who's only mostly dead? Dickens' VIctorian novel of death and pretended death and hiding from the real world is even more apropos as we enter this season of the Dead Speaking and the Live Returning.

Book Review: The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne

Here is an excerpt from my review of THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, by Jules Verne:

Five men and a dog traveling in a hot air balloon are caught up in violent storm. "They continue to travel for many, many miles, finally crash landing on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean. Using only their ingenuity and resources they find on the island they create a very civilized home for themselves, complete with (almost) all the modern conveniences. The island seems to be a perfect - albeit lonely - home for the five men. But all is not exactly well. Due to some rather strange occurrences the men become convinced that they are not alone on the island ..."

...

The creators of [Lost] credit The Mysterious Island as the chief inspiration for the show.

You can read the complete review on my blog at this link.

Posting Book Reviews

According to Amy, not many of us participated in the Lost Books Challenge the first time around, and even fewer completed it. Since we’ve got this great blog now, Amy & I agreed that this should be THE PLACE to come for any and all Lost book reviews.

If you have previously read any of the books referenced in the show, please write a post on this blog linking to your review (or just copy your review here). To make things easy to find, tag your post with both "book review" and the name of the book you read. That way, as the site grows, we can compare different perspectives on each book.

- Heather J. (Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books)

Episode Recap: "Because You Left" and "The Lie"

This is the place to leave links to your recaps of the Season Premier episodes, "Because You Left" and "The Lie".

I've read a few recaps already but I *know* there are more out there ... bring 'em on!

Also feel free to discuss these two episodes amongst yourselves in the comment section.

If you want to speculate about what is coming, here are some things I'm wondering about:

• Who are the flaming arrow people? Are the in the future or the past?
• Is Sun really planning to kill Ben? Who is the other person she blames for Jin's death, Widmore or Jack?
• Who is after Aaron?

Oh, and one more thing. The Lost Diary blog is back! They just posted their recap today - I can't wait to read it!

Hubba-Hubba

Sawyer ... without a shirt ... for over half of the premiere ... need I say more??!!

Episode Recaps?

Hi all. Hope you don't mind me putting up the first "conversation" post here at the Lost Books Challenge blog.

I'm thinking we should have a post for every week's episode. Since there are tons of people out there writing recaps on their blogs, the comment section of these posts will be the place to link up to your own recap (or another good one you've seen), and also to discuss what's going on in the show. What say you? If I get some yeses in the comments, I'll create a new post for the season opener.

And what about spoilers? Are we assuming that whoever is reading these episode recap posts has actually watched the episode in question? So, spoilers ... ok or not ok?

Anxiously waiting for your input ...
- Heather (Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books)

Design this Blog?

If any of you have a talent for design and blogs and designing blogger...let me know. I'd love a fresh look to the blog!

Sign-Up for the LOST Books Challenge!

Welcome to sign-ups for Round Two of the LOST Books Challenge. Some things have been changed since last time, so here's the scoop:

1) Round two of the LOST books challenge will launch Wednesday January 21st and continue until the series finale in 2010. Participants can join at any time.

2) Participants are asked to choose at least five books off the list of books alluded to or mentioned on the show to complete by the time the series concludes in 2010. If participants did not complete the first challenge, they can use those same books again. Find books here, here, or here.

3) The LOST books challenge will have its own blog. Participants can cross post their reviews directly onto the blog. But to add to the fun, participants can post about anything related to LOST (except for spoilers)...recaps of the episodes, theories, etc. It will be sort of a fun place for book blogging Losties.

4) I promise to try to keep it fresh and interesting with mini-challenges and contests.

5) To sign up, write a post with the books you intend to read and link back to this sign-up post to invite others along for the fun. Then come and drop the permalink to your post in the Mister Linky.

6) If you want to post to this blog, send me an email at lostbookschallengeATgmailDOTcom If you just want me to post a link to your review with a short excerpt, send the link to lostbookschallengeATgmailDOTcom

Anyone who signs up by January 30th, 2009, will be eligible for a drawing for season 3 of LOST on DVD.