Well ladies and gents — we finally made it! Read this little by little for the past year, and am so grateful I broke it up like this.

ABSOLUTELY what I was looking for. This edition contains all five of the Douglas Adams’ novels in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. My dad has always been a big fan of Adams, and we loved the movie. I’m so surprised I’ve never read it before!

The humor is perfectly paced — I think this is the first book(s?) I’ve audibly laughed out loud to consistently. Whether the punchline is built up throughout a chapter, or the entire novel, chances were that it was was hysterical. The world building is single-handedly one of the most impressive I’ve seen, and I fell in love with this sense of storytelling.

This very well may be my favorite book series. The universe is a joke — and that’s not a bad thing at all.

Jumping into Adams’ beloved sci-fi saga, I was aware that it was a humorous odyssey involving a guide to space and it really is way more different than anything I’ve read in the sci-fi genre.

The first volume of the same name follows Arthur Dent who is saved by his friend, a researcher for a galaxy guide, after Earth is destroyed to clear space for a galaxy freeway. Thus begins a screwy adventure through space that includes a brainwave fish, a depressed robot and a very rich planet that all connect to Earth. Arthur’s story slowly stretches into five novels (and a short character prequel) that’ll see him on other planets, meet many more otherworldly people and get into plenty of intergalactic madness.

“TUHGTTG” has so such wittiness and adventure that it’s definitely out of this world. My favorite thing about it is obviously it’s strange blend of sci-fi and humor that’s practically on every page. Arthur’s story is truly all over the place that you might have to slow down a bit and it does get a bit dark and shabby around the fifth book. My trip through the “Galaxy” was still a great one and I can’t wait to explore it again. A- (91%/Excellent)

So Long and Thank Heavens I Somehow Read it All! : 2/5

Enjoyed first two books namely "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Restaurant at the end of the universe", but other three books are mostly unbearable. May be the Brit Humor did not get me at the hello or I'm too old for this series. Sorry Mr. Adams but I ain't got any feels even for the Marvin the Paranoid Android! *Chuckles*

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: ★★★★★
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: ★★★★★
Life, the Universe, and Everything: ★★★★
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: ★★★★
Young Zaphod Plays it Safe: ★★★
Mostly Harmless: ★★★★

I read the first book in this series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a few years ago, but at the time I was in sort of an on-again, off-again relationship with reading so I didn’t finish the series. After some disappointing reads this year, I wanted something I knew for a fact wouldn’t let me down. I reread the first book to refresh my memory, and this time I read the rest of the series without stopping.

This series is a wild ride in all the best possible ways. It’s hilarious, it’s wacky, it’s absurd, it’s very British, and it’s so much fun. Douglas Adams reels you in from the very beginning and keeps you hooked until the very end. The hits just keep on coming: Whereas most books contain, at most, a handful of truly memorable lines, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series boasts at least a handful of truly memorable lines in every chapter. If I’d read this series in ebook form, it would have more highlights than the rest of my Kindle library combined.

This series is filled with witty dialogue between memorable characters with distinct personalities. Even the most minor characters left an impression and contributed something valuable to the story. In his narration, Adams goes off on amusing tangents that add to both the entertainment value and the worldbuilding. Usually this writing style would grate on my nerves because it distracts from the plot and impedes a story’s forward momentum, but for some reason, when Adams does it, it just works.

I’m not sure what exactly it was about the last three books that didn’t quite do it for me in the same way the first two did. I think it came down to a series of minor complaints: parts of their plots dragged, or they focused too much on characters I didn’t care for, or certain plot points confused me, or there wasn’t enough character interaction. I’ll also admit that I got a bit fatigued reading over 800 pages.

I have one final complaint that was consistent throughout the series. I’m just generally underwhelmed by science fiction that depicts the entire galaxy/universe as just as patriarchal and heteronormative as the planet Earth. It’s boring and unimaginative. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the male to female character ratio was abysmal, none of the few female characters were anywhere near as well-developed as their male counterparts, and their personalities and character arcs almost entirely revolved around men.

"Paniğe kapılmayın" çünkü elinizdeki kitap dünyanın en eğlenceli ve en ince mizahına sahip kitabıdır.

Bu tedirgin, boğucu ve belirsiz zaman diliminde okunabilecek en iyi kitaplardan biri kuşkusuz. Şahsımca bir kitaptan daha da öte.. Belki edebi bir tadı yok ama bunun dışında içinde her şey ama her şey var!

Evrene dair bildiklerimiz ve bilebileceklerimiz; birbirinden absürt kurgu ve karikatürize karakterlerle ve bu absürtlüğü sayesinde insanı içine çeken öyle bir anlatımla harmanlanmış ki hayran kalmamak elde değil. Kahkahalar ata ata, bazen sadece içten içe kikirdeye kikirdeye, bazen de tabiri caizse varoluşun hiçliğinin komiği bundan daha güzel nasıl çıkarilabilir diye düşüne düşüne bir bakmışsınız bitmiş.. Hacimli bir kitap olmasına karşın hiç bitmese, sonsuza kadar devam etse keşke denilen o nadir kitaplardan. Tıpkı minicik beyinlerimizle kendimizce algıladığımız evren gibi..

Douglas Adams'ın ölümünden sonra bilgisayarından çıkan taslaklarla derlenen Galakside Son Bir Kez Otostop Çekmek -Kuşkucu Somon bu beşli kadar iyi midir bilmiyorum ama kesinlikle okuyacağım, alındı listeye.

Son olarak zaman, evren, varoluş, farklı boyutlar gibi kavramlar ile ilgiliyseniz size bu mevzularda yazılmış çizilmiş şeylerin birçoğundan bambaşka yerlerden dokunuyor.. Daha karikatür, daha dünyalı daha lineer bir yerden :) Kıssadan hisse Italo Calvino'nun Bütün Kozmokomik Öyküler'inden sonra hayatımda okuduğum, Kozmos'a dair en iyi kitaplardan biriydi.

Muhtemelen çoğu ayrıntısını hatırlamamakla beraber; okurken aldığım tadı, bıraktığı düşünsel tatmini, attığım kahkahaları asla unutmayacağım.

The reader Suzy down below says it best: "Terribly witty and sickeningly clever"

Basically, the Hitchhiker series is the equivalent of Douglas Adams using some sort of godless magic to conjure pure unconcentrated "Funny" into the form of a hideous, many-spiked, eight ton iron mace, which he then proceeds to viciously and remorselessly beat you with for several hours or until you give him your package of store bought cookies, which he believes are his because you both bought the same brand and happen to be sitting at the same table that day, but his are unwittingly hidden underneath his newspaper and so he's assumed you've stolen them.

That's why I've taken to reading this compilation by flipping to a random page and only reading a chapter at a time. "HG to the G" is like a well crafted roux - on its own it's much too potent to eat, but as a sauce spread thinly upon your otherwise dull and eventless day, it is delicious.

OK. Where do I start with this one. It's a doozy.

Let's first of all say that I think this is one of the best uses of the English language. It's right up there with, well, anything else. I mean, just read the sentences. He is a lot like Tolkien, in that he makes the words themselves the art. But where Tolkien will take English and make it into a lush, broad canvas, Mr. Adams turns English into a plaything. Let's put my last sentence another way: The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy is the literary equivalent of juggling chainsaws. You read it through the first time, and you have no freaking clue how he did that with those words.

OK, we got that out of the way. How bout the story now? Sure, that sounds good, Nick.

There is no plot.

For all of you who need one, I'm very very sory. But frankly, it's better that way. Life doesn't have a plot, right? You just sort of muddle through your week doing the best you can with what Life can throw at you. Well, that's the point with this. He takes the most regular guy, the guy you'd like to hang out with, someone decent that you can introduce to your sister. And then Adams throws him out into space and just sees what happens.

Certain parts of this book, especially at the beginning, are an adaptation of the BBC Radio programme aired in 1977, which was also written by Douglas Adams. And he wrote H2G2 episodically, but also with no clear goal in mind. So when his characters come to a problem, Adams had no idea what would happen to them until he wrote the solution. Some rather large pieces of the story stuck in H2G2 this way. This is most true in the earlier books in the Trilgy (yes, it's five books in a series; The trilogy is inaccurately named), when the writing is fresher and better.

But the best part of H2G2 (and all of DNA's books, frankly, even Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) is his worldview. Basically, it's all about taking what life gives you with patience, humor, and tea. Yes, he was an Atheist (Yes, I'm a Christian whose favorite thinker/writer/guy was an Atheist. Calm down, calm down.), and he disliked people using ideas and beliefs as a crutch. This is the part where it's hard to really write a coherent review for me, because so many loved ones of mine (hi Mom and Dad) would see this as a Very Bad Idea. So why don't you shoot me an email, and we can have a discussion about it? Maybe sit down, and have some coffee and some nice nosh and chat? You'll get more and better ideas out of me that way. Anyways, I've just lost my train of thought, so I'll just say you'll love the part about the Vogon poetry.

And H2G2 is an inaccurately named trilogy, because it is composed of five books. I recommend reading them all at once, even though there's no plot and things in one book will sometimes contradict things in another. Anyways, this trilogy is still one of my favorites.

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

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.

I'll admit it - this genre is not for me. I knew that I wouldn't be picking up very many books like these in the future, and so I decided to give this one my all. I cruised through all five books with relative ease, and what's more, I think I even genuinely enjoyed it! It's frustratingly hilarious. The books have truckloads of that peculiar thing that is English humor. I kept turning pages, one after the other, in the hope that everything would make sense in the end. And did it? Well.......I'm not saint enough to just tell you. What I have realized is that the Hitchhiker series is all about the journey. You get to zip across the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash, sometimes with Arthur Dent, and at other times with Ford Prefect, the alien journalist from Betelgeuse with a fondness for Earth. You also get to meet and hang out with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and Marvin, the depressed as hell android. You come across the most beautiful ideas, the most logical ideas, the most fantastic ideas, and the most preposterous ideas, all within the space of a few pages. I think the book might have driven me a little crazy. Before you know it, you're in this roller coaster going forward and backward in time, riding the infinite improbability drive, cruising past distances several light years long, and holding on for dear life. I didn't think I'd make it through, but then, I couldn't resist. The whole thing was so wonderfully silly, that I had to know where it all went. And I found myself unable to stop reading. The books are a complete and utter laugh riot, but I'll still stick with what I said earlier - that I don't think this is my genre, but I cannot promise that I'll never come back for a re-read. And before you can ask me, yes, t'is true. T'is true that the answer to everything is indeed 42. Go figure!

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.

Better late than never. After decades of hearing about this series, I finally broke down and read this collection. I laughed so much I thought I'd pass out.

I will definitely keep my towel handy.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (★★★★★)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (★★★★★)
Life, the Universe and Everything (★★★★★)
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (★★★★★)
Mostly Harmless (★★★★★)