Flight 815-ers Unite discussion

Books I've read in the past:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
Holy Bible
Chronicles of Narnia
The Dark Tower series
Dune
Harry Potter
Jurassic Park
The Pearl
A Tale of Two Cities
Through the Looking-Glass
To Kill a Mockingbird
Watership Down
The Wizard of Oz
A Wrinkle in Time
The Little Prince

Books I've read just because of their Lost connection:

Catch-22 - read 7/20/07
Lord of the Flies - read 8/2/07
Carrie - read 9/11/07
Slaughterhouse-Five - read 11/3/08
The Stand - read 12/23/08
Stranger in a Strange Land - read 2/21/09
Evil Under the Sun - reread 4/18/09
The Outsiders - read 5/10/09
O Pioneers! - read 6/19/09
Watership Down - reread 7/27/09
The Mysterious Island - read 4/29/10
The Turn of the Screw - read 7/30/10
Of Mice and Men - read 8/22/10
Moby-Dick - read 11/1/10
The Brothers Karamazov - read 12/26/10
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes - read 2/27/11

Luann, are you currently reading anything from the Lost lit now?

Not to barg in, but a few months back I read Bad Twin, which was good.

Ive heard mixed reviews on that one. I have been tempted to pick it up, but just never have.....

Lori wrote: "Ive heard mixed reviews on that one. I have been tempted to pick it up, but just never have....."

It's not a bad book, got a few Lost references in it which are really cool.

I did have Stranger in a Strange Land checked out from the library, and planned to read it last month. But The Stand took way too long, and I had to return Stranger before I read it. I'll check it out again soon. It's the Lost-related book I'm planning to read next. Maybe I'll pick up Evil Under the Sun at the same time.

I'm finally getting to Evil Under the Sun. I wasn't sure if I had read it before. I've read a lot of Agatha Christie, but didn't keep a list and it was a lot of years ago! Now that I'm about half way through, I've started remembering things. So I HAVE read it before. It's fun to reread, though, since I haven't remembered "whodunit" yet. :)

Oh, it is the same thing for me. I just can't remember any detective novel-plotes or characteres, though I read a lot of detective books.

Makes it nice when you want to reread. Although if I remembered better maybe I wouldn't have to reread. :)

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie. 4 stars.

Just finished this. It was such fun! I love it that Agatha Christie can still surprise me, even with a book I've already read. Although in my defense it has been years and years since I first read it. It seemed the details I remembered to be suspicious of only led me in the wrong direction! :) Dame Christie truly is a master of misdirection!

I'll post about the Lost-related details in our "Lost Books We've Read" folder, but I'm going to post here a picture of the edition Sawyer is shown reading. It is also the one I added to my list since the one I actually read was VERY old from the library and didn't have any picture on the cover at all. I guess to be more authentic to the Lost details I should have found this edition to read! :)

Okay, I just noticed something weird. I was making sure I had all of the Lost books I'd read on my list, and now that I've added Evil Under the Sun, there are 23 books on my list! :) What have they done? I'll never look at those numbers in quite the same way again! :)

LOL! You have made me want to read that book ... great review. So what was the connection with the show?

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. 4 stars.

I read The Outsiders over the weekend. It's another book that everyone in the world read in high school, but I never did. I enjoyed it a lot! It was tough and gritty with some violence, but it wasn't littered with strong language for the "realism." S.E. Hinton did a great job of creating characters you really care about - and who learned and progressed throughout the story. Now I want to see the movie!

I'll post about the Lost-related details in our "Lost Books We've Read" folder.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. 4 stars.

This was a pleasure to read! Willa Cather's writing is straightforward and plain, yet beautiful at the same time. It completely mirrors the characters and the land written of in "O Pioneers!"

I've been thinking about what makes a classic, since this book is a classic yet isn't like many others I've read. I see this as a classic because it gives you a chance to step back and see your life through new eyes and compare it through the light of new experiences that you've never actually had, but feel like you have now that you've read about them. A classic is a book that changes you, even just a little, in a profound way, just because you've read it. And that's how I feel having just finished this. I've been changed, just a little, because I read this book.

Two favorite quotes:
"She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring."

"People have to snatch at happiness when they can in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find."

I'll post about the Lost-related details in our "Lost Books We've Read" folder.

Just updated my list with the five I plan to read this year:

-Of Mice and Men
-The Mysterious Island
-The Brothers Karamazov
-The Turn of the Screw
-Moby Dick (Will I finally finish this one? Maybe 2010 will be the year! :)

Turn of the Screw?
Don't read that, it's dull
:D

But it's on the list! And I'm trying to combine this with my classics challenge for the year. So many of the classics are long that I needed to sprinkle in a few shorter ones as well.

Of Mice and Men is definitely a must-read. One of my favorite books of all time.
Brothers Karamazov is also pretty awesome. I had more fun reading 'bout the Karamazovs than I did when I read Turn of the Screw (even though it was considerably thicker, it didn't feel like a chore).

That's good to know, Rauf! Thanks. I'm going to try to get some of the longer ones out of the way early in the year, so I'll put The Brothers Karamazov high on my list. I'll put Turn of the Screw at the bottom of the list and maybe I'll never even get to it. :)

Rauf's right. I would rather read The Brothers Karamazov a hundred more times than ever read The Turn of the Screw again. But I see where you're coming from Luann. I had to read it for myself even though I read all the horrible reviews on it beforehand.

You feel even stronger about The Turn of the Screw than Rauf, Jessica! Wow! Is it wrong that I'm now just a bit curious about The Turn of the Screw and look forward to seeing if it's just as bad as both of you say? :) I'll still keep it at the bottom of my list for this year, though. And maybe I'll never even get to it.

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. 3 stars.

I never would have finished this if it wasn't on the Lost Lit List. It was just too long, not enough happened that I cared about, and I didn't care about the characters all that much. Herbert was probably my favorite.

The beginning was FAR too unbelievable. Why did Verne make such a big deal of them having absolutely nothing - one match, one grain of corn, a sharp edge they created by using the dog's collar? From that and the resources of the island, they create huge pots, iron-tipped spears, and a pickax! All in a VERY short period of time - with no problems whatsoever. Even Brian (of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet) had his hatchet and still had trouble collecting enough wood to keep his fire going. These guys collected enough wood to fire a kiln with just their bare hands. I kept telling myself, "Fantasy. Think of it as a fantasy." But it wasn't written that way. Verne really asked me to suspend my disbelief - but I wasn't enjoying it enough to go along easily.

There are a lot of Lost connections. As I was listening to this, I asked myself why I was so bothered with some of the things when the same exact thing didn't bother me on Lost? For example, I kept thinking, "Why don't they explore the entire island? Maybe there are people around on the other side and they just don't know because they haven't bothered to go looking." But then I never thought that on Lost. I think one reason is that Lost quickly got busy with all sorts of mysterious and unexplainable yet very interesting things happening while these guys were quickly making pots and tools and bricks for their mansion in an underground cavern. In fact, these guys kept themselves so busy, they hardly even noticed the mysterious happenings on their island until they had been there for more than two years, which is two-thirds of the way through the 750+ page book.

One similarity to Lost that I thought was fun was trying to send a message for help with a bird. Of course it didn't work on Lost OR on the Mysterious Island.

On the plus side, I did learn about some animals I'd never heard of such as the dugong and the onager. And I did start enjoying it more towards the end. Some exciting things did happen. Although, I have to say that the part with Captain Nemo was much too long coming and was over MUCH too quickly! I'm giving this three stars since it did get better as it went along, but for much of it I wanted to give it two or maybe 2.5 stars.

(I listened to the Librivox recording by Mark F. Smith. He does a nice job and has a pleasant voice.)

Is anyone still reading Lost literature?? Or are we done now that the show is over? I still plan to read a few this year since it's also part of my "10 classics in 2010" challenge.

And I particularly wanted to tell Rauf and Jessica that they were completely right about The Turn of the Screw! I should have listened to you!

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. 1.5 stars.

I had been warned not to read this, but I didn't listen. It's on the Lost literature list, and I was looking for a couple of shorter classics to include as part of my "10 Classics in 2010" challenge. Well, I should have listened. Yes, it's short. But it FELT long. I think listening to it in audio format also didn't help. Listening to it just seemed to drag it out even longer for me.

The only way I could get through it was to imagine that the main lady was in an insane asylum. The two children were part of her hallucinations. They didn't feel real to me anyhow. The uncle was the doctor who initially put her in the asylum. That's why he never wanted her to contact him again. The housekeeper was a nurse in the asylum, and the two people she kept seeing were actually other inmates in the asylum with her. (Buffy fans will recognize the idea.) Once I started listening with that idea, I didn't mind the story so much. It still felt long and a bit boring, but at least I could listen. How can this be a classic that people enjoy and revisit? Somehow I missed something somewhere. Unless that lady is really in an insane asylum, and then I'm on board. :) Although I don't want to ever revisit this book! 1.5 stars

Note: The Lost connections here are very minimal and have almost nothing to do with the plot of the book. With my spin on the story there is a stronger Buffy connection than Lost. Oh well, at least I can check this one off my list. My next classic will be another shorter one, Of Mice and Men, before I start the VERY long The Brothers Karamazov.

Luann wrote: "Is anyone still reading Lost literature?? Or are we done now that the show is over? I still plan to read a few this year since it's also part of my "10 classics in 2010" challenge.

And I particula..."

I'm still working on it! :o)
Notes from Underground is next on my list, but I still have quite a few left.

I feel for you regarding The Turn of the Screw. I'm another one that just had to "see for myself". That book was torture.

Thanks, Cait! I'll continue to post here, then.

Well, as I said, I really should have listened. But it doesn't hurt me to read a book I don't like every once in a while, right? :)

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. 4 stars.

This is another classic that definitely deserves its status as a classic. The story is timeless, yet firmly rooted in its setting. It's so well-written that just the writing is enough of a reason to recommend reading it. The characters are memorable and incredibly real, although not necessarily people I would want to meet in real life. They hope for the same things we all want - a roof over our head we can call our own and people to share it with. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, right up until the end. And isn't that another mark of a good classic? You might see the end coming, but it doesn't pull any punches or let you off easy. And for such a short book, I can think of all sorts of topics that could be discussed. No wonder it is popular for high school literature classes.

For the Lost fans out there, this is a title on the Lost Literature List. Sawyer is seen reading it in jail, and in a later episode says it is his favorite book. Also, Ben quotes from it once when talking to Sawyer: "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. It don't make any difference who the guy is, so long as he's with you. I tell ya...I tell ya, a guy gets too lonely, and he gets sick." Also, from the book, Lennie is looking forward to raising rabbits, and rabbits play a large part in the early seasons of Lost. I need to watch again some of the earlier Lost episodes that connect with this book now that I've read it!

Note: This does contain some strong language.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. 2 stars.

** spoiler alert **

It seems to me that Melville decided to write a book that was "all things whale" - and I'm talking ALL things. Moby Dick is everything you ever wanted to know about whales and MANY, MANY, MANY more things you didn't. This contains more nonfiction information than actual fiction story. He should have written two books - one fiction and one nonfiction - so that I wouldn't have to suffer through all of the minutiae about whales when all I really wanted to read was a classic adventure story about Captain Ahab and Moby Dick! Finding THAT story is like hunting for a needle in a haystack - a haystack that goes ON and ON for hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS of pages! While this isn't the longest book I've ever read, it definitely FELT like the longest book I've ever read.

In fact, now that I've read this, I take exception with what I've always heard that this book is ABOUT. I even take exception with the title! Shouldn't that be called a SPOILER?? Because the part about Moby Dick doesn't come until THE VERY, VERY END of HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of pages about other things - most of it VERY BORING! I'm very glad that I finally made it all the way through this book so that I WILL NEVER feel like I need to READ IT AGAIN!

All that said, there were some good parts and with some editing (LOTS OF EDITING - cutting out whole chapters at a time), this could be the exciting adventure story it's always made out to be. I listened to the Librivox audio version read by Stewart Wills who does a great job. I can tell he likes the story, and that did help me while listening to it. There are some very beautifully-written passages that were very nice to listen to. But overall, I can only go as high as two stars for this book. And now I'll never again have to wonder what all the fuss is about!

This is on the Lost literature list, and I have to say that wondering and waiting for the end of Moby Dick felt similar to waiting for the end of Lost. Was the end going to be worth all the effort and waiting? Was the end going to be good enough? Was I going to feel let down after devoting so much time and energy? One main difference, though - with Lost, I enjoyed the journey and trusted that I really would like the ending. I only enjoyed some parts of Moby Dick and I was never quite sure that the ending was going to be worth it. I'm still not sure.

I see you're reading The Brothers Karamazov the rest of year... YIKES. Good luck to you - I finished that one and was grateful I wouldn't have to read another Dostoevsky!

Yep, my tenth classic for 2010. But hey, I'm told it's MUCH better than The Turn of the Screw! I'm just hoping it's also MUCH better than Moby Dick! That one about did me in for long, drawn-out classics. If it were the only book I needed to read before the end of the year, I would be confident in finishing. It isn't, so I guess we'll just see. Thanks for the encouragement!

I did end up finishing The Brothers Karamazov before the end of the year! It helped that it also counted for two other challenges in other groups. Here's my review:

While I was reading this, I kept wondering what rating I would give it. Is this a three-star book? Four star? Two star? Did I like it at all? Why was I making myself read this? Sometimes I found it fascinating and other times I was just bored with it. It felt like it took forever to read, yet when I finally got to the end, I wanted it to keep going!

I didn't expect to find so many pervasive themes such as family and religion. I can see why this book is often studied in literature classes. If I were asked to write a paper on The Brothers Karamazov, I would analyze the father relationships in the story, such as those between Fyodor Pavlovich Karamozov and his three sons, between Ilusha and his father, Captain Snegiryov, and between Alyosha and Father Zosima.

I felt that the first half of the book was particularly slow and drawn-out. We meet most of the characters and get LOTS of detail on their characters, their history, their place in the storyline, and their relationships with other characters. This information helps out later on, but it felt like Dostoyevsky took a long time getting to the actual meat of the story. Once we got to the murder (or patricide), I became much more interested in all of the details and the story moved along a little bit more quickly - although just a bit! Dostoyevsky really likes to take his time revealing things.

This is on the Lost literature list, which is one of the reasons I chose to read it. The themes of fathers and patricide are also important themes in Lost. Also, The Brothers Karamazov was the book Locke gave to Ben Linus (then Henry Gale) when he was held captive in The Swan. Ben asks, "You don't have any Stephen King?"

Now that I've finished the book, I'm still pondering what rating to give it. It wasn't difficult reading, but it was slow. I was interested in the characters, but once I stopped reading I wasn't always that anxious to start again another time. But then, as I mentioned, I wasn't ready for it to be over when I got to the end! That REALLY surprised me! So, while it hasn't been my favorite book in the world, I did find it interesting to read and I don't regret the time I spent with it. I wouldn't mind reading another book by Fyodor Dostoyevsky sometime. I would give it 3.5 if I could, but I'm going to round up to 4 stars because of how I felt when I got to the end.

Some personal statistics for this book:

* This is the first LONG book I've read entirely on my Kindle.

* This was book #10 in my "10 Classics in 2010" challenge!

Just finished A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen W. Hawking. I read the edition my library had, but I see there is a more recent edition which is the one Aldo was reading on Lost. You can read my review here.