Spend Your Holiday Cash on a New LOST Book (or Win a Copy, If You're Lucky)

IT IS NOW 9 AM CT ON 1/4/10 AND THIS CONTEST HAS CLOSED. I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS WITHIN THE NEXT DAY.

Hello my dear friends -

First and foremost, Happy Last Day of 2009. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to move on to 2010 already.

The reason I'm posting this fine afternoon is because I wanted to tell you about something that will not only help you pass the time between now and the LOST season premiere on February 2, but also thoroughly prepare you for The Final Season -- even if you've been participating in a LOST Rewatch. It's a book by my extra-awesome friend and fellow LOST blogger and DarkUFO recapper Vozzek. Vozzek is one of the few LOST bloggers that I've actually had the pleasure of talking to (yes kids, ON THE PHONE) and he is truly a great guy. I certainly wouldn't have survived some of the ups and downs of this year without him.

So here's the deal -- he has a book of completely new (and spoiler-free, of course) material and it was published last week: Things You Never Noticed About LOST: Past Perceptions and Future Theories. I just returned home from my holiday travel yesterday, found my copy waiting for me and let me tell ya, it's GOOD.

Vozzek spent the hiatus watching Seasons One through Five again and forming several overarching theories about what could be going on with our dear Oceanic 815 survivors. He's got over 244 pages of ideas that will make you pause and say to yourself, "Wow, I never thought about it that way." In the short time I've had the book in my possession, there have already been three things I read that have made me want to pop in certain episodes and see some of the curious things that Vozzek's pointed out for myself.

Things You Never Noticed About LOST is $11.95 plus shipping (and yes, he ships internationally). If you order it here from his site, there's a box you can check during the purchase process if you want him to sign it, and he'll inscribe it with whatever you'd like as well. Or you can order it from Amazon (but the inscription/autograph option isn't available there).

OR you can win one of three copies I'm giving away. He'll write a note and sign the book for all three winners, and the contest is open to anyone, anywhere. All you have to do is tell me something tongue-in-cheek that YOU'VE noticed about LOST over the past five seasons. You know, like "I've noticed Sawyer tends to be shirtless an awful lot." I'll pick my favorite three and announce the winners -- or maybe I'll let Vozzek pick his faves? -- on Monday, January 4, so get your submissions in (to this blog... nothing sent via Facebook or Twitter will be considered) by 9 AM Central Time that day, please. And just one entry per person. I won't publish anything rude or offensive, either, as I'm sure you all know.

Eminent LOST theorist Doc Jensen of Entertainment Weekly featured Vozzek as a "super-fan" recently; the interview starts about halfway down the page here. I highly recommend checking it out to learn more about Vozzek and his book... but of course I had to ask him a few questions of my own, so here they are:



e: First off, congratulations on publishing the book -- I know it was no small undertaking. What made you decide to write it?


V: People who've read my recaps have been asking me to put them in some kind of book format for a while now. I never wanted to do that - it seemed a little cheesy (okay, a lot cheesy). Still, the thought of writing a book about the intricacies of LOST was pretty attractive to me. You can read a lot of books about what happened during the last five years of LOST, but not a whole lot of them explore why it happened. That's my favorite part.


e: What was the hardest part about writing it?

V: Believe it or not, rewatching the show. Having seen through the end of season five, any viewer doing a rewatch is a lot more educated. There are so many new things to notice... so much important stuff happens, it's hard to pick and choose what you want to talk about and what you need to leave out. And with all the repeating themes, scenes, and dialogue? It's just a lot of research. I could be writing about a scene that happens in season four, but also need to make references to near identical scenes in seasons one and two. Breaking the book down to individual chapters helped a lot when it came to keeping focus.


e: Did any of the theories you’ve had significantly alter once you rewatched the last five seasons?

V: The way I perceived John Locke changed an awful lot. Once you know he ends up being "occupied" by the man in the black shirt, you start to wonder how far back that control goes. Even as early as the first four or five episodes, you start getting the impression that John was being used as a vessel (for lack of a better term). But at the same time, he was still Locke, too. I also started exploring the signs that Locke was manipulated by more than one opposing force.

Jack's character also becomes a lot more interesting during the rewatch. From the moment the plane crashes to the very first decision Jack makes (choosing the color of thread Kate sews him up with), there's evidence that Jack is very different from the rest of the Flight 815 survivors. Stranger in a Strange Land doesn't just refer to Jack's vacation to Thailand. Isabel's words to him are a lot more important when you start thinking that way.


e: Yeah, you know, the only season I watched again was Season One, and I was really struck by how much crap Jack had to deal with -- it was RIDICULOUS how much everyone relied on him for absolutely everything. I think many people have forgotten about that over the years. But now we've come to the LAST season for the show. How do you feel about the series coming to an end this year?

V: Excited, but of course sad. Like everyone else I can't wait to see how the show ends, but I'm going to miss watching new episodes. I keep consoling myself with the fact that the show's fanbase is way too enormous to just go away once the final credits roll. No matter what, we're going to have 120+ amazing episodes of LOST. There will always be boards, forums, and people who want to discuss ideas, concepts, and theories. I have a feeling we'll get some overall answers to the bigger questions by the time the show ends, but the writers will still leave a lot of things open to interpretation.


e: OK, one last question, but it's a biggie: How do you think the show will end?

V: With the LOST logo. ;)


e: D'oh! You're totally right -- you heard it here first, folks!



OK everybody, get your Things I Noticed contest entries in by Monday, have a happy and safe New Year's celebration, and come back next week to see who the lucky three winners are. Or if you can't wait until then, just go ahead and buy Vozzek's book right now -- I promise you, you'll love it.

Oh, one more thing: I will still be running a January contest on the site (and a bonus Twitter-based contest as well -- so follow me, won't you?) and it will probably commence next week, so stay tuned.

Until then,
- e

IT IS NOW 9 AM CT ON 1/4/10 AND THIS CONTEST HAS CLOSED. I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS WITHIN THE NEXT DAY.