If I say I'm the biggest LOST fan out there, I might catch flack from fellow viewers, so I'll just say I love LOST. Naturally, a book titled "LOST and Philosophy: the Island Has Its Reasons" is going to catch my attention.

In January, my friend Rachel and I were venting about the senseless death of Charlie Pace when I decided I couldn't wait another month to get my LOST fix - I'd have to get it another way.

It was a cold night in Philadelphia, so we drove to Borders to get some hot chocolate. After finishing our drinks, we went our separate ways to find a book. I wound up in the Western Philosophy section. It was there that I found the solution to my withdrawal symptoms: "LOST and Philosophy: the Island Has Its Reasons."

The book satisfied all my LOST needs. I was reading the essays well into the start of the fourth season. It gave me ideas to think about and referred me to other literature, which may provide further insight into the show's true purpose.

It's one of 11 volumes classified under the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series title. William Irwin , the series editor, is an associate professor of philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Irwin believes philosophy has had a bad public relations problem for a few centuries now. The series aims to fix that. He hopes that coupling philosophy with popular culture will illustrate that philosophy is relevant to people's lives. "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and a healthy helping of popular culture clears the cobwebs from Kant."

The LOST volume was published in January 2008 and was edited by Sharon M. Kaye , an associate professor of philosophy at John Carroll University who writes the book's introduction. Kaye explains that she's spent some time trying to figure out why the show has such a hold on her. She believes she's finally figured it out, and uses a childhood experience to explain it. Kaye was lost once, and she believes that once you've been lost, you're never quite the same. It's the fear that results from being lost, that LOST speaks to. "The fear is a philosophical fear because it speaks to the human condition," Kaye writes. "It forces us to confront profound questions about ourselves and the world."

The book is a collection of 22 essays, which Kaye organized into four groups: "L is for Love," "O is for Origin," "S is for Survival" and "T is for Transformation." The essays examine a variety of topics and subject matters, but they all confront the big questions about life.

The essays grouped under "L is for Love" examine ethical issues raised on LOST. The first essay "What Do Jack and Locke Owe their Fathers?" is one of my favorites. Written by Michael W. Austin, it looks at the strained relationship main characters Jack Shepard and John Locke have with their fathers. Austin applies the teachings of philosophers Jane English and Henry Sidgwick to answer the question posed in the essay's title. English's view seems strange at first, but it gives the reader a fresh way to think about parent-child relationships.

My favorite essay "Lost, The Third Policeman, and Guerilla Ontology" can be found in the "O is for Origin" section. Written by Jessica Engelking, the essay introduces the novel "The Third Policeman" and draws parallels between the book and the show's narrative. She quotes LOST writer Craig Wright as saying, "Whoever goes out and buys the book will have a lot more ammunition in their back pocket as they theorize about the show. They will have a lot more to speculate about -- and, no small thing, they will have read a really great book."

Engelking also introduces a religion called Discordianism. Followers of this religion hold sacred a text called "Principia Discordia." Central to this text is the Law of Fives, which states: All things happen in fives, or are divisible by or are multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to five. Discordian numerology also holds the number 23 sacred because (2+3=5). Any avid LOST fan can tell you that the show is loaded with references to the number 23.

The only essay I didn't enjoy was "Lost in Codes: Interpretation and Deconstruction in Lost's Narrative" written by Tom Grimwood. It's also placed under the "O is for Origin" section. I found the essay to be confusing, and I nodded off a few times while reading it. I read it again to see if I was just sleepy the first time, but the only thing I remember is that Grimwood pointed out a reoccurrence of the number 815 in the show's narrative. The content may have been over my head.

Overall, I feel the essays successfully fulfilled Irwin's mission: they made philosophy fun and interesting. "LOST and Philosophy" is a must-read, especially for fans of the show.