Following recent buzz about the significance of Shusaku Endo’s Deep River in LOST‘s final season, we got to thinking about the role that books have played in the ever more complex saga of Oceanic flight 815. From ABC’s own Lost Book Club to Lostpedia’s comprehensive list of every cited work, the show’s literary references have already been scrutinized to death. But whatever these different texts might reveal (or not), J.J. Abrams’ trail of book crumbs also doubles as an excellent recommended reading list. With the show’s final season premiering Tuesday night, here’s a guide to the best Abrams-approved, LOST-themed books worth reading — whether or not you’ve ever even seen the island-based drama.
The Invention of Morel
Written by Adolfo Bioy Casares — stoner fave Jorge Luis Borges’ protégé and collaborator — The Invention of Morel is a mind-blowingly bizarre novel. At a slim 100-pages, the plot unravels with a suspenseful pace but leaves the reader mostly disoriented until its surprising climax. Combining mystery, satire, a touch of Kafka-esque science fiction, and plenty of philosophical provocation, The Invention of Morel deserves a close read (and repeated rereads). In addition to offering some clue to Lost, the book also served as a model for cryptic art house classic Last Year at Marienbad.
The Moon Pool 
Abraham Merritt’s The Moon Pool elaborates on a tradition of subterranean fiction that includes everyone from literary luminaries like Jules Verne and Edgar Allen Poe to pulp heroes like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Featuring an advanced civilization living at the Earth’s core, the plot concerns an epic battle of good and evil that defies the typical Heaven/Hell clichés. Subterranean fiction as a genre has mostly fallen out of fashion since outer space became the final frontier, but Merritt’s fantasy epic is an enduring classic from a bygone era.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
A sardonic satirist if ever there was one, Ambrose Bierce is best remembered for his cynical view of human nature — most notably in the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” The deceptively simple plot revolves around the hanging of a Confederate sympathizer, but Bierce stretches out only a few seconds over multiple pages. This novel experiment with narrative time was a crucial influence for later writers like William Faulkner, Jorge Luis Borges, and Kurt Vonnegut (who considers anybody who hasn’t read the story a “twerp”).
Lancelot: A Novel
Walker Percy’s career-long preoccupation with dislocation and modernity emerged in his Southern Gothic classic Lancelot. Told through the reflective memories of Lancelot Lamar, a lawyer institutionalized after the murder of his wife, the story transposes the symbolism of Arthurian legend onto 20th century existential gloom. Though not exactly an uplifting read, Lancelot is nonetheless a thought-provoking study of morality and the modern age.
The Mysterious Island
From aquatic adventures (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) to seminal subterranean fiction (Journey to the Center of the Earth) to early outer space stories (From the Earth to the Moon), Jules Verne produced some of the most enduring sci-fi classics of all time. Though less well recognized than some of his other titles, The Mysterious Island has already found its way into pop culture via a combined narrative with 20,000 Leagues (for which Island is a quasi-sequel) in the latter’s 1916 silent film adaptation. The novel itself is a breathtaking read, however, featuring pirates, a message in bottle, several literary cameos, and plenty of suitably mysterious discoveries.
Island
Aldous Huxley’s Island optimistically reassesses the dystopic nightmares he portrayed in Brave New World. After revisiting his famous novel some 30 years after its publication, Huxley wrote Island as a counterpart that would offer solutions to many of the problems he had recognized in society. Set on the utopian island Pala, the novel inverts many of the elements that made Brave New World so terrifying — drug use, assisted reproduction, group habitation, contraception — as Huxley shows how these same technologies can be used for good.
Valis
Even in a canon of outlandish work that includes Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly, and Minority Report, Philip K. Dick’s VALIS stands out as the most unique of the bunch. Narrated by a fictionalized Dick and his protagonist proxy Horselover Fat, the book is an extended, at times utterly surreal, meditation on the pursuit of religion and philosophical query. Addressing doctrines like Christianity, Gnosticism, and Taoism, the story is a subtly paced romp toward the meaning of life.
The Shape of Things to Come
Forget Nostradamus — H.G. Wells was the 20th century’s most apt prophet. We probably don’t have yet to worry about Martians attacking Earth, but Wells’ novels foretold many of the scientific and political events that changed the modern landscape. In The Shape of Things to Come, he maps out a chronology of the world between the years 1933 and 2106 — including, among other notable predictions, a German-Polish conflict that would incite a second world war (which, in turn, took place only four months ahead of Wells forecast timeline). Though most of the events remain pure fiction, Shape is still an engrossing look at an alternative history of the world.
Flavorpill covers cultural events, art, books, music, and world news. Join now.
Email to a friend
Tweet
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
25 Responses
You can see the film “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” Winner of 1962 Cannes Film Fest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jLxlyTrAC4
You can see the film “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Winner of 1962 Cannes Film Fest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jLxlyTrAC4
[...] a number of literary allusions in the story lines. This morning I came across a reference to the books of Lost. Percy’s Lancelot makes an appearance, so now I’m half tempted to watch the show [...]
Very cool article
i could give a shit about LOST, but i actually want to read a few of these now. brava.
[...] is a link that I randomly found providing a select list of books that appear in the show. I’ve read stuff by most of these authors, but none of these [...]
[...] voice of "Lost" "Lost came as a more subtle emanation from a nervous America" The books of "Lost" // Final season DVD due out Aug. 24 Emilie de Ravin: "It’s been a lot of fun playing the old [...]
[...] to the subject of Lost (see below), Flavorwire offers “a guide to the best [JJ] Abrams-approved, Lost-themed books worth [...]
You forgot Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman.
And Hilton’s Lost Horizon!
I figured they all died in the plane crash; subsequent stories are of each one working out his/her issues in a limbo/purgatory . . . assuming the writers are Catholic . . . .
The Magus by John Fowles. Doesn’t have to do with an island, but its mysterious tone and the concept of “others” messing with people to create a global, living theatrical production remind me of a lot of the episodes.
VALIS (Vast Artificial Living Intelligence System) is great…. What’s crazy is that Dick based it around his own experiences w time travel, medical miracles, and contact w universal consciousness. Hey, it was the 70′s. The Matrix borrows quite a bit from a certain waking dream of Dick’s outlined in the novel… A Roman Empire that never ended but instead controls our collective memory while simulating our current reality. Far out, man.
You forgot when Sawyer was reading ‘Hello God It’s Me Margaret’
Just added each book to my Must Read list and Horselover Fat to my Favorite Names list.
[...] honor of the last season of Lost starting this month, the Flavorwire blog has a list of books mentioned on Lost. I used to listen to a Lost podcast, and the podcasters would freeze-frame the [...]
[...] The books of Lost… Feels like it’s been years since I’ve been able to stare at Kate’s ass as she shimmied up some vine-covered soundstage hill, or marvel at the ridiculous beauty of Sayid’s eyes, or even complain about the turnoff of Sawyer’s stringy hair and slope-y shoulders… but even longer has been the deficit of book spotting… Was there a fucking library on that plane? [...]
You forgot Atlas Shrugged from Ayn Rand, one of the best book ever! The show stinks but I will definitely read the books in this article! great!
[...] Books from “Lost.” [...]
someone should look into Philip Jose Farmer’s RIVERWORLD SERIES
and Flannery O’Conner’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” collection of short stories that Jacob was reading at the end of the fifth season! It was featured quite prominently, but I haven’t been able to discern the significance…
“stoner fave JLB”??? I’ve never seen someone so thoroughly swipe at the knees of (arguably) literature’s most universally beloved saint. Did I just read that?
Also: rufus marvel: the book’s called “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
I’ve never seen Lost, but having read half of the books above, I endorse this list.I would also agree with Alyssa P., Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman should be added to the list. It could be that jeff might be right!
I was going to say the same thing about “Stoner Fave Jorge Luis Borges” Borges is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century! He’s not Carlos Castaneda!
Read “Pincher Martin” by William Golding of “Lord of the Flies” fame.