LOST in a Good Book

In all honesty, there are two shows that I enjoy but that, quite honestly, I rarely - if ever - blog about.

Battlestar Galactica and Lost.

It's not that I don't enjoy both of them - part of it is that, so much is said, I would only be adding noise to the discussion. Plus, pal Rich does it so much better than I could, I'll leave it to him.

(Although I think I could drink him - and Warren Ellis - under the table).

But when I read an interview with one of the Lost writers, stating that The Third Policeman was going to be referenced - for a key reason - and that viewers would have "more ammunition" to analyze and understand the series - I knew that I had to read it.

I'm not going to do a comparison between the two, because that would be kind of spoiler-ish, but I can say that, even for those who do not watch Lost, The Third Policeman is a very enjoyable, absurdist novel.

A man fails at a robbery, and finds himself in a unique situation. A famous theorist named de Selby postulates all sorts of interesting things, like how people are turning into bicycles, and that night is simply the accumulation of "dark air".

What's remarkable about The Third Policeman is that, if it were published tomorrow, would be cited as having a great Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett wit...and much like its current television descendant, there's a great sense of "what's-going-on-here". It's not an easy read, by any means (in one chapter, the footnotes seem longer than the actual chapters)...but in a way, it is one of the book's strengths.

Would anyone read this book if it wasn't mentioned in discussions about one of the best shows on televisions? I don't know...but I'd like to think so.

Highly recommended.