Lost Encyclopedia - Paul Terry and Tara Bennett

Okay - I fully admit it - I am a die hard Lost fan. But, I never watched it on television. (Lots of channel switching, avoiding articles and covering my eyes and ears...) Instead, I always asked for the latest season on DVD for Christmas.  And Christmas 2010 brought the final chapter to this intricate addictive show. 

But - I will be starting from the beginning again - yes one of the few shows I will re watch. And accompanying me this time will be the Lost Encyclopedia.

It's the ultimate reference for fans - a 400 page coffee table book filled with over 1500 glossy colour photos and very, very detailed information...

Each and every character that appeared, however briefly, is profiled - including all the passengers on the original flight. Some of them, I didn't even realized appeared on all seasons, such as Cindy the flight attendant. Of course, the main characters are covered in great detail, their connections on and off island and just about anything connected to their story. So many connections that I had forgotten or overlooked on my first watch.

It's not just the people covered either. Each of the Dharma stations is profiled as well as the other settings such as the camps. As someone who works in a library, I was always fascinated by what Sawyer was reading (I think my favourite was Are You There God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume) and the book references. All covered, as is the music, the Dharma Initiative food brand, the animals, the nicknames Sawyer used for everyone, the meaning of the hieroglyphics at the temples and of course those famous numbers. (Can you list them?) And soooo much more! Lot of obscure minutia to be found - the ingredients for those Apollo candy bars include yak butter and mouse toes.

Quoting the executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse:

"What you saw on television, the show itself, was the ten percent of the iceberg above the water. But the majority of our time in the writer's room was spent constructing the part below it. The details. The timelines. The intricate backstories of the passengers of Oceanic 815, not to mention the people who inhabited the island long before them. Then we put them altogether and let what happened, happen.

Now that the show is over, there has been great curiosity in our process...a desire to see those details in 'offical' form....And so now you hold the first and only official LOST ENCYCLOPEDIA."

See for yourself - get a peek inside the Lost Encyclopedia.

Definitely the definitive guide to own for fans of Lost. And now if you'll excuse me, Season 1, Disc 1 is waiting.....