Is "Endangered Species" to be taken seriously?

[Nanna]

I just finished reading Lost, Endangered Species, by Cathy Hapka. On the cover it says that it's "An original novel based on the hit tv series created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof." It was alright as far as those kinds of books go and it kept to the style and feel of the tv show. Up until last weeks official Lost podcast I just assumed that none if the info in the book was of any importance to the rest of the story. On the podcast though they talked a lot about snakes and birds. The novel is about a herpetologist who ends up on the island. Throughout the story she encounters odd snakes and an what she thinks is an extinct species of bird. I'm probably reading to much into it though.
My question is this, should we take the information in these novels as cannon or not? What do you think?

[matt]

Well, I doubt it. Most novels based on TVs shows or films, such as the Star Wars novels, are not taken as canon. I think the recent King Kong prequel is an exception. But who knows?