Books for free

First of all, this is my first LP blog. Please be kind.

But anyway, November's book for the Lostpedia Literary League is the Alice in Wonderland title. Unfortunately when announcing the book Nick left out a very good source to find the books.

The Wikipedia partner, Wikisource, has completed texts of both Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which are completely free to access.

Lewis Carroll died over 100 years ago, so his works are in the public domain. Unfortunately, I believe this is possibly the only text in the public domain the LLL will cover.

Hopefully, anyone who has been trouble accessing books can participate in November with this source.

Also, this is NOT the beginning of reading Alice. The current book is still Slaughterhouse Five, which is still being discussed on the forums.

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Lostpedia Book Club - "Carrie" is our first book!

Again, a big thanks to everyone showing interest and also signing up on Forums, etc etc. After quite a wait I decided, while Lostpedia wiki is down (it'll be back up soon folks!), that I should officially give notice about our first read - which as I alluded to in a previous post will be "Carrie" by Stephen King.

Now the plan is that the reading will commence Saturday August 2nd - Saturday August 23rd, and on the latter date there will be a live discussion in Lostpedia IRC Chat (exact times I'll let you know but most likely 2pm EST so 6pm GMT, similar to how debate league is run on Sundays). Anyway, you can also during the entire read through time discuss the book on Lostpedia Forums here, and utilize IRC Chat for informal discussion (though that channel is for all Lostpedia conversations, not just the book club).

Official reading as I say won't commence until August 2nd, but of course I'm telling the info now so people have some degree of notice to obtain the book (I'm sorry it is quite short notice for this one). If you want to start reading early, go for it, but just remember forums won't open to discussion until we're in the official time frame.

On August 2nd, I will post a reminder of the start, and also reveal September's book then (so a month's warning!). Vote for what should be September's book here. Following that, I will reveal book titles a month in advance at the end of live discussions (and then post it on the blog for those who missed it a week later at the start of the next read). So, in more simple terms, on August 23rd I'll tell you what October's book will be and then post it on the blog when I announce September's official read start, and so forth (and if that made sense to you, you're a very good reader already). Basically, just stay in touch and we'll see you right!

Okay, so we begin on August 2nd! Now is the time to start thinking about finding your copy of Carrie. If you'd like to borrow the book from a library and live in the USA, you can follow this handy link to locate your nearest public library. Alternatively, if you'd like to get yourself your own copy to keep, here's a link to Amazon (the $7.99 price seems to be pretty standard). International readers I'm sure can use their local versions of Amazon and stuff too, if you decide you want to buy instead of borrow from a library. Whatever your method, happy hunting and watch this space for the official start a week on Saturday!

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Lostpedia Book Club Confirmed

Thank you to everyone for all the messages of support for the Lostpedia Book Club which, by popular demand, will now also be known as the Lostpedia Literary League (or L³ for the "hip" among you, using the term loosely lol...) Whatever you wanna call it though, its definitely going ahead, which is absolutely awesome. I also want to quickly thank other Lost sites who've offered support and advice too, its lovely to see sites already offering book clubs or having done so in the past are so pleasant and genuinely excited about getting fans reading.

The project looks set to begin August 1st, though I'll formally announce what's happening I think a week before - I think its too early to get it going right now, and too late on the 1st as we all need time to find the book required, etc etc - so I'm holding off official announcement.

However, right now I've set up a thread on the Forums where you can "sign up" as it were. Don't worry if you don't sign up, it isn't official! It simply gives us an idea of numbers, and also responds to so many of you who asked where to sign up haha. Its also a good time to consider registering on Lostpedia Forums if you haven't already. It is obviously free, and it just

might be useful for when we do start the reading as you will be able to discuss it on there (unless you just want to join in on the live Lostpedia Chat discussion at the end of the reading period - which requires no actual registering or membership). Anyway, if you do wanna cast a vote, here is the poll link:

http://forum.lostpedia.com/showthread.php?t=16857

Thanks again guys, and I look forward to officially announcing the start of L³ soon! Oh, and thanks to BauerUK and Blackxthorne for their design and creation of the awesome logo!

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Taking the Lostbook just that little bit more literally

I recently visited ABC.com, and checked out their new flash feature entitled "Lost Book Club". Its quite a nifty little application, listing 40 books that writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have nominated due to them being influences and featured literary works on Lost. The writers have also issued a letter with the feature, encouraging fans to read the books and take some enjoyment out of their interesting narratives. With some of the finest literature around, its a great list.

This was what got me thinking. What if, Lostpedia ran a scheme similar in nature, but taking the writers hopes just that little but further. We could choose a book, have a reading time (say, 3 weeks), during which time the book could be discussed on a special subforum on Lostpedia forums and on Lostpedia IRC Chat. Then after the 3 weeks, a moderated live chat could be conducted on Lostpedia Chat, discussing the book and its comparisons to Lost. Then we could take a well-earned week off, and then with the new month, a new title. Discussions on what books should be for future months could be proposed on the forum at all times, and this project could continue right up until the new Season 5.

Could this project work? Well I think it could really be interesting, it would get people involved in books featured on the show, encompassing our core aim - knowledge relating to Lost. At the same time, by being involved in the project and borrowing the books would help your local libraries and generally encourage reading (not to get all "magic of reading" on you). Or, buying the books if you wanted could expand your bookshelf for ostentatious purposes. But seriously, it'd be a fun project and great all round.

But the question remains, though there's been interest, would a good sum of people actually be willing to do the reading as part of the scheme? However, Lostpedia has always taken risks, and the benefits of this could be really great for the community, and the fanbase as a whole. We'd love to hear from you, and especially your ideas on books or how we could build on the initial ideas presented here. I think though, if we were to take it further, we'd have to have a certain King novel to start it off. Even if Ben thinks its depressing... well I guess he's out of the book club, anyway.

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