The universe is a joke.

Even before I was shown the meaning of life in a dream at 17 (then promptly forgot it because I thought I smelled pancakes), I knew this to be true--and yet, I have always felt a need to search for the truth, that nebulous, ill-treated creature. Adams has always been, to me, to be a welcome companion in that journey.

Between the search for meaning and the recognition that it's all a joke in poor taste lies Douglas Adams, and, luckily for us, he doesn't seem to mind if you lie there with him. He's a tall guy, but he'll make room.

For all his crazed unpredictability, Adams is a powerful rationalist. His humor comes from his attempts to really think through all the things we take for granted. It turns out it takes little more than a moment's questioning to burst our preconceptions at the seams, yet rarely does this stop us from treating the most ludicrous things as if they were perfectly reasonable.

It is no surprise that famed atheist Richard Dawkins found a friend and ally in Adams. What is surprising is that people often fail to see the rather consistent and reasonable philosophy laid out by Adams' quips and absurdities. His approach is much more personable (and less embittered) than Dawkins', which is why I think of Adams as a better face for rational materialism (which is a polite was of saying 'atheism').

Reading his books, it's not hard to see that Dawkins is tired of arguing with uninformed idiots who can't even recognize when a point has actually been made. Adams' humanism, however, stretched much further than the contention between those who believe, and those who don't.

We see it from his protagonists, who are not elitist intellectuals--they're not even especially bright--but damn it, they're trying. By showing a universe that makes no sense and having his characters constantly question it, Adams is subtly hinting that this is the natural human state, and the fact that we laugh and sympathize shows that it must be true.

It's all a joke, it's all ridiculous. The absurdists might find this depressing, but they're just a bunch of narcissists, anyhow. Demnading the world make sense and give you purpose is rather self centered when it already contains toasted paninis, attractive people in bathing suits, and Euler's Identity. I say let's sit down at the bar with the rabbi, the priest, and the frog and try to get a song going. Or at least recognize that it's okay to laugh at ourselves now and again. It's not the end of the world.

It's just is a joke, but only some of us are in on it.

I read this series YEARS ago sometime in the early to mid 2000s, BUT this time I want to read the Ultimate version, which has the short story in it. :)

The coolest five-book trilogy ever. Seriously some of the best and original science fiction ever written, and it just happens to be hilarious. Not too many people have the balls to write a trilogy that starts off with the absolute destruction of earth for no other reason than the fact that it was in the path of a hyperspace highway that was soon to become obsolete with the advent of the improbability drive. Speaking of which, the technology in these books is easily more imaginative than anything that George Lucas has thought of in the last twenty years. I look forward to the day when I can receive all of my nutrients through a towel. Painting myself pink has yet to be attempted, but I have no doubt that I would become somebody else's problem. My goal in life is to create Disaster Area's completely frictionless ship that gets launched into a nearby star at the climax of their planet-wide concerts. Someday.... Reading these books is essential for living. If you appreciate anything from Monty Python (Adams worked with the Pythons on occasion) or want to read something original, read this iconic trilogy. You will not be sorry.

La mia avventura nello spazio è finita - per ora. Ho viaggiato su astronavi bellissime, superaccessoriate e di colori sgargianti. Mi è capitato anche di salire su di una completamente nera. Ho viaggiato attraverso milioni di anni luce. Ho incontrato gli alieni, tanti alieni, alcuni mi somigliavano anche. Ho attraversato diversi mondi paralleli - che poi tecnicamente non lo sono in realtà, paralleli. E ho visitato pianeti con le caratteristiche più disparate, ma nessuno è bello come la Terra - a parte forse Lamuella, per quanto abbia potuto rendermene conto da quel breve intervallo di vita che Arthur Dent ha speso laggiù.

Leggere Guida galattica per gli autostoppisti è tutto questo e molto di più. Al centro di tutto c'è un uomo abbastanza ordinario - Arthur Dent - la cui vita tranquilla viene sconvolta dal suo amico Ford Prefect che è un autostoppista galattico bloccato da quindici anni sul pianeta Terra.
E poi c'è l'incredibile e meravigliosa Guida, una sorta di libro digitale - oggi ci riesce immensamente più facile immaginarcelo a differenza di quaranta anni fa - sulla cui copertina si legge la scritta a caratteri cubitali NIENTE PANICO. Ecco, credo che una guida di questo genere possa essere utile anche nella vita di tutti i giorni. Anzi, forse non tanto la guida in sé, quanto la sua imponente scritta sulla copertina.

Douglas Adams regala al lettore delle perle di ilarità pura, motivo per cui durante la lettura capita di essere trascinati in un riso implacabile e spontaneo. Questo ciclo di romanzi è, dunque, uno svago perfetto. Offre un'ottima distrazione, ma chi riesce a leggere tra le righe troverà spunti di riflessione interessanti. Non mi sembra esagerato pensare che in questo libro sia presente l'idea del cercare di dare un senso alla vita e la conseguente realizzazione della precarietà della vita stessa.

Itt van 816 oldal összefüggéstelen hülyeség, történések sora, amik között szinte semmi kapcsolat sincs, állandóan megszakítva létfontosságúnak vélt adatok közlésével képzeletbeli bolygókról. A szereplők ide-oda vetődnek, néha egyszerűen eltűnnek, és nem bukkannak fel többet, soha nincs megállás, vagy ha van, ha éppen jól éreznéd magad, feltűnik a lányod, akinek az anyjával sosem volt intim kapcsolatod, és ellopja az órád. Katyvasz az egész, és imádod, mert vicces, mert ironikus, mert eredeti, mert olyan, mintha „Utánam a vízözön!” felkiáltással kiállnál egy tetszőleges (űr)autópálya tetszőleges irányba menő sávja mellé, hogy az első űrhajóval autóval, ami felvesz, elindulj akármerre, és így tovább, és így tovább. A kellemetlenségért pedig elnézést kérünk. :)

- whew!! kept me singing that old song that goes ♫♪"i just can't get enough!" ♫♪

2.5 stars

I ended it after four books because I felt like the fourth book (epilogue not included) had a nice ending and also I'm bloody sick of it

It doesn't get any better than this. Best books ever.

Bir haftada bitiririm umuduyla başlayıp iki ayda bitirmem, ikinci kitabın hayal kırıklığına uğratması ve üçüncü kitabın gereksiz olduğunu düşünmem dışında güzeldi. Güzel yapan en büyük etken de Ford Prefect karakteriydi tabi.

otostopçunun galaksi rehberi: 5/5
evrenin sonundaki restoran: 3/5
hayat, evren ve her şey: 2/5
elveda ve bütün o balıklar için teşekkürler: 5/5
çoğunlukla zararsız: 4/5

Douglas Adams is either the craziest, most creative and funniest author I've ever read, or he's just on crack.
Or maybe it's a little of both.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the books that follow it are all completely insane and impossible to summarize, so I'm not even going to try. They're books that can't be taken too seriously, so just sit back, relax, and enjoy the portrait of insanity Adams so expertly paints.

I think after having made little to no progress in the past about 9 months it's best if I just give up even pretending I'm still reading this book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the book I really wanted to read - classic English comedy? Bring it on! I enjoyed that book; if I was rating this alone it would be a good 4-star book - it was funny and inventive with some great characters...it's the other books in this series that made it so difficult for me. The second - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - wasn't particularly bad, but didn't even nearly live up to Hitchhiker's Guide. I plowed through it hoping it would get better.

It didn't.

Half-way through the third book - Life, the Universe and Everything - I just got stuck. There was no longer any consistent plot, often even within the books, and I didn't really have a clue what was going on any more. There were some interesting bits but not enough to motivate me to read any more.

And I'm disappointed about this, because there were some great characters. Marvin the depressed robot is sheer genius and I love him. Unfortunately, he's not in it all that much. Similarly, the incredibly enthusiastic doors were great, but (for obvious reasons - namely that they are doors) don't appear all too often.

I love British humour - dry wit and sarcasm is very much my thing. But even that wasn't enough to save this series for me. My recommendation: read Hitchhiker's Guide, but don't bother with any of the others.

I'll maybe try reading this again in a few years because I so want to love these books, and hopefully the outcome will be better. But I'm not holding my breath.

"I give up!"

I exclaimed this very proudly. Just as proudly as Arthur exclaimed, "I will go mad!" At the beginning of the third book.

I enjoyed the first two books and the beginning of the third but decided that I have nothing to gain from reading the rest of this series. I was wrong! If you are going to read Douglas Adams then my advice to you is to read them one book at a time and not in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide.

I grew tired of Douglas Adams' roundabout jokes that took on an identical spin by the time I reached the third book. Maybe it's because I'm American. What do you think? Is this British Monty Python humor? At times I read it and quite enjoyed it. At times I read it and quite loathed it.

Go ahead, read the first book. That one doesn't bite much. You'll quite like it I'm sure.

I'm quite sure I'm done now.

14 of 15 books completed this year. .933 isn't such a bad batting average.