LOST Encyclopedia Hardcover Author: Visit Amazon's Tara Bennett Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0756665949 | Format: PDF, EPUB
LOST Encyclopedia Epub FreeDirect download links available LOST Encyclopedia Hardcover Epub Free for everyone book with Mediafire Link Download Link
Review
"This glossy hardcover, with more than 400 pages and 1,500 images, is the ultimate Lost lover's guide to characters, locations, relationships, and myths surrounding Oceanic Flight 815." --Entertainment Weekly, November 5, 2010
"[The book] provides tons of material to ooh and ahh over: timelines, hundreds of photos, celebrations of each character, pretty much every reference to The Numbers. After about 15 minutes, you'll want to watch the series from the beginning." --USAToday.com (Pop Candy Blog), November 8, 2010
"[I]f you're still looking for a Christmas gift for the LOST die-hard in your life, we hear great things about the 400-page 'Lost Encyclopedia' from the photo-book masters at DK Publishing." --E! Online, November 22, 2010
"A perfect fix for grieving Losties." --USA Today (Holiday Gift Guide,) December 2, 2010
Books with free ebook downloads available LOST Encyclopedia Epub Free
- Hardcover: 404 pages
- Publisher: DK Publishing
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0756665949
- ISBN-13: 978-0756665944
- Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 1.2 x 10.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
First, an initial statement of possible sources of bias: I am a professional academic and an unapologetic LOST enthusiast (you may read what you like into that conjunction). I ordered the LOST Encyclopedia on May 4 and received it on October 12 following a delay from its original listed release date of August 24, so I've been anticipating its release for a while.
Second, an executive summary: as a fan of the show, I'm glad to finally have this "encyclopedia" on my bookshelf and think it an excellent resource. Nevertheless, the presentation of the book is somewhat less polished than I would have hoped, leading me to suspect that a second edition may be in the works. Any recommendation that I can give would therefore have to be a guarded one.
Like the show for which it serves as a reference guide, this book must have been a massive undertaking for everyone involved with little guarantee of pleasing everyone in its audience. I can therefore forgive the omission of some items (no entry for the Hybird, or "Hurley bird," for example) and the lack of linked entries (e.g. "The Hatch: see Swan Station," or "Jeremy Bentham: see John Locke").
My objections to the book's editing begin with the character entries, which are generally sorted alphabetically by first name. I have no problem with organizing an encyclopedia in this way, as this is hardly an academic text and there are a variety of minor characters whose last names are unknown; however, the glaring exceptions to this rule--John Locke, whose entry is filed under "L," and James Ford, whose entry is filed under "S" for "Sawyer"--happen to be among the most important entries in the volume.
The LOST Encyclopedia will not bring a bevy of new insights or craved "answers" for fans of the show, but it is a solid catalog of facts and histories from the show's vast mythology. I wouldn't call it comprehensive, but it's an enjoyably casual reference for fans of the show.
The biggest negative trait of the book is the sloppy editing. Despite being delayed multiple times before its release, the articles still contain numerous typographical errors (I'd estimate one every couple of pages on average), far more than should be acceptable for a professionally published work like this. There are even entries that are OUT OF ALPHABETICAL ORDER: under "D," there are three entries ordered "Donovan," "Dogen" and "Doctors." I know it's something most people won't lose a lot of sleep over, but as an English major I found them impossible to ignore and quite distracting from the flow of the book.
More important and germane to the nature of the LOST Encyclopedia, there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the emphasis placed on some elements of the show in contrast to others. For example, on the same two-page spread, Eddie Colburn, a minor character featured in ONE flashback episode, is given as much attention as Edward Mars, a character who appeared in multiple flashbacks and on the Island. Another example: there's a massive two-page entry dedicated to the RECORD PLAYER in the Swan station. The same amount of space is given to the blast door map, one of the pivotal set pieces of the series. If I had to guess, I'd say that such decisions were made to make the articles fit into neat two-page layouts, with the visual presentation emphasized over the relevance of information.
As mentioned in a previous review, the alphabetization of the entries is slapdash.
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