This feels like an accomplishment to have finally read. Not because it was a challenging read or anything, but simply because it’s one of *those* books I’ve had on my radar forever and just never got around to reading. I’m happy to report I really enjoyed it!

I won’t even bother explaining this book here because it’s so well loved and widely regarded as a staple of science fiction. But I will say this reading experience took me back to some of the stories I read and loved as a kid. It has the absurdity of something like Alice in Wonderland mixed with the tongue-in-cheek writing of a Lemony Snicket novel. It balances that wit with sincerity and big questions really well.

My only complaint is that the ending felt a bit lackluster. I would’ve enjoyed a bit more resolution for this installment, but I know this is a big series. Maybe someday I will continue with it!

Absurdity at its finest.

Arthur Dent is having a bad day, his house is about to be levelled down because it’s in the way of the construction of a new freeway. At the local pub, he encounters his enigmatic friend Ford Prefect. Prefect, a galactic hitchhiker, is leaving the Earth, and taking Dent with him. A minor nuisance; apparently the Earth is just about to be demolished to make way for an interstellar freeway. Dent’s realization is instant, several billions of people are going to have a very bad day.

This is the most ridiculously funny book I’ve ever read. Although that may be because it was my very first of the kind. I think the hype is very well deserved, if you are into that kind of humor. I lost track of how many times it made me laugh, and I’m not really an easy person to make laugh. Outrageously silly sci-fi humor in every single chapter. An unforgettable ride through an absurdity of worlds scattered along the vast craziness of an unfathomable galaxy.

The movie (2005) is a mediocre adaptation at best; even with a stellar cast like Rockwell, Deschanel and Malkovich. It’s not nearly as funny as the book, not by a long shot, at least for me. It doesn’t make it justice and is not exactly faithful to the original work. And sadly, you just can’t bring down the magnificently complex absurdity of Douglas writing to cinematic dialog without losing much of its original magic.

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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[2007] [193p] [Humor] [Highly Recommendable] [Outrageously ridiculous] [Wonderfully crazy galaxy] [Never forget Marvin] [ –I really don’t think you are going to like it. –Tell us!!! – Ok… 42. ]
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★★☆☆☆ 0.5. Young Zaphod Plays It Safe [1.5]
★★★★★ 1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
★★☆☆☆ 2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe [2.5]
★★★☆☆ 3. Life, the Universe and Everything
★★★★☆ 4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
★☆☆☆☆ 5. Mostly Harmless
★★★☆☆ 1-5. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  
★★★☆☆ 6. And Another Thing... [2.5]

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Absurdidad en su máxima expresión.

Arthur Dent tiene un mal día, su casa está a punto de ser derribada porque está en el camino de la construcción de una nueva carretera. En un bar local, se encuentra con su enigmático amigo Ford Prefect. Prefect, un autoestopista galáctico, está por abandonar la Tierra, y se va llevar a Dent con él. Una pequeña molestia; al parecer la Tierra está a punto de ser demolida para darle paso a una autopista intergaláctica. La realización de Dent es instantánea, varios billones de personas van a tener un muy mal día.

Este es el libro más ridículamente gracioso que leí jamás. Aunque eso es tal vez porque fue el primero que leí de su especie. Creo que su fama está muy bien merecida, si te atrae ése tipo de humor. Perdí la cuenta de cuántas veces me hizo reir, y no soy una persona realmente fácil de hacer reir. Atrozmente tonto humor de ciencia ficción en cada capítulo. Un inolvidable paseo a través de una absurdidad de mundos esparcidos a lo largo de la vasta locura de una insondable galaxia.

La película (2005) es una mediocre adaptación cuando mucho; incluso con un elenco estrella como Rockwell, Deschanel y Malkovich. No es ni de cerca tan graciosa como el libro, ni por asomo, al menos para mí. No le hace justicia y no es exactamente fiel a la obra original. Y tristemente, no podés traer la magníficamente compleja absurdidad de la escritura de Douglas a diálogo cinematográfico sin perder mucha de su magia original.

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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[2007] [193p] [Humor] [Altamente Recomendable] [Atrozmente ridículo] [Maravillosamente alocada galaxia] [Nunca olvidar Marvin] [ –Realmente no creo que les vaya a gustar. –Dínoslo!!! – Ok… 42. ]
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What a weird little book.

Something I'll do, almost immediately after finishing a book, is Google the heck out of the genre it belongs to. For example, after finishing Furiously Happy, I wanted to find a book that would make me laugh as much as it did. When in doubt, turn to Google. I have googled "most funny books" , "funny fiction books" and " comedy books". Each time, this was one of the top results. And since, I got Audible for Christmas, I thought I would give it a try. (But also because Google is shoving it down my throat.)

I'm still not totally sure how I feel about it. I keet waffling. One chapter, I'd be laughing and thinking I would definitely rate it 5 Stats but the next, I would be bored and wanted to rate it 3. (I decided on 3.5 stars).

This book is described as sci-fi AND comedy. A very very weird combo. I like both of those genres separately but together they were just weird. I love chocolate and I love grilled cheese but would I put them together? Heck, no. (Well, I might but I've been known to have weird food combos. Cheese and chocolate. Eggs and syrup. Apple's and chips.)

Aside from the genres, the plot was very creative. They story open a with the end. The end of earth. Two aliens and two aliens the travel the Universe and hilarity ensues. That's all fine and good but then the book just ended. I can only describe at as like when your walking and reading and you run into a wall and your nose gets all scraped up. (Not that that's happened to me or anything

n  

“If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”

n

I read this book because it is my boyfriends' favorite series. I struggled with it so much. I already struggle with fantasy, and this book didn't explain what is happening thoroughly and develop the characters enough right away in the beginning. So like I said I really struggled.

However, I watched the movie and according to my boyfriend there was a lot in the movie that wasn't in the book, so I guess that didn't help.

Ich habe den Anhalter schon sehr oft gelesen und bestimmt es das am häufigsten von mir gelesene Werk. Insofern kann ich mich wohl als eingefleischter Fan sehen, der dazu beiträgt, diese Satire zum Kult hervorzuheben. Ich habe es nun zuletzt in einer Leserunde hier auf Goodreads wieder mal mitgelesen und das war eine neue Erfahrung, denn ein Großteil der oft deutlich jüngeren und ausnahmslos weiblichen Mitlesenden stand di Lieblingswerk viel kritischer bis enttäuscht gegenüber. Ist es das Schicksal eines humoristischen Buchs, dass es bei sich wandelnder Gesellschaft und Humorempfinden seine Zeitlosigkeit und damit seinen Kultstatus verliert? Wird Douglas Adams in 20 Jahren nur noch von einem versprengten Haufen von Nerds gelesen? Gehöre ich jetzt auch schon zu den Alten, die von früher schwärmen, als Ende der 70er Jahre mit Monthy Python und Douglas Adams endlich mal eine andere Art von Humor über Film und Buch in Deutschland einzog, welches zu der Zeit noch von Otto und Mike Krüger geprägt war?

Ich habe auch diesmal beim lesen wieder oft gelacht. Das Buch hat über die Jahre nichts an Freude bei mir eingebüßt. Manche Anspielungen können die Jüngeren wahrscheinlich einfach nicht mehr verstehen, ob es sich um Digitaluhren oder um Bob Dylan-Songtexte handelt. Für mich ist das Buch auch kein Sci-Fi im eigentlichen Sinne. Es ist eine Satire mit jeder Menge genial verpackter Gesellschaftskritik an vernunftorientierten Homo Oeconomicus, der sich für die Perle der Schöpfung auf der Erde und damit auch im Universum hält. Douglas Adams zeigt Arthur Dent, dem einzigen Überlebenden der Menschheit auf, dass die Erdlinge nur kleine Staubkörner, die den falschen Idealen nachgerannt sind. Er dreht den Spieß um, macht die Mäuse zu den Herrschern über den Menschen und uns zu Versuchsobjekten. Er zieht das Streben nach der Wahrheit und dem Forscherdrang durch den Kakao, in dem er uns eine Zahl als Antwort auf die Frage nach dem Sinn des Lebens gibt. Da kann ich mich als Volkswirt herrlich darüber amüsieren, da ich oft genug die Welt in mathematische Modelle packen musste und froh war, wenn die Lambda-Gleichungen am Ende aufgingen. Trotz allem Klamauk und Slapsticks über Handtücher und Umgehungsstraßen steckt in dem Buch für mich viel mehr dahinter. Ich liebe es.

Okay, I can understand how somebody might not absolutely love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It does after all combine a few things—such as scifi and screwball comedy, for instance—that not everyone can deal with. In other words, the nerd quotient is high here, and people who aren't wired that way might end up perplexed.

BUT--and this is a big ol' BUT: I don't understand how anybody can HATE this book. In fact, if I weren't such a saintly, even-keel, kittenish kind of guy, I might say that I'm tempted to hate haters of this book. How can you hate such a genial, well-meaning book? I mean, Douglas Adams just saunters in, gives his readers the glad hand, rolls up his sleeves, and gets down to business—summoning every gag in his repertoire just to keep you curmudgeons entertained. And does he succeed? In my opinion, yes. Most definitely.

I should probably tell you, by way of disclaimer, that I have some hardcore nostalgia invested in the Hitchhiker books. (There are five in all, but I never read the fifth Mostly Harmless.) This may be the first non-film novelization full-length book that wasn't strictly intended for kids that I ever read. That's an accomplishment for a kid who was raised on reruns and talking to himself in the tool shed in the backyard. I kind of hated reading for the most part before I got out of college. (I know! I was one of those people! Endlessly grasping for the channel changer and being ruined by the media.)

Since I was maybe twelve or thirteen when I read this, I'm sure some of the dry humor flew right over head, but the slapstick, sight gags, and ridiculous plotting sure didn't. There are so many absurdist details in this ricocheting narrative that presenting you with a thorough summary would be tough. Suffice it to say that it centers on an Earthling named Arthur Dent who narrowly escapes the destruction of the planet when it is destroyed to build a galactic superhighway. He ends up hitching a ride on a stolen spaceship with the (two-headed, three-armed) president of the galaxy.

If you're rolling your eyes, you are (1) a killjoy and (2) not the intended audience for this book. Go read Jane Austen or one of those books about cats that live in libraries. If you're smart and have good taste, read this book. It's kind of like a slightly lowerbrow Woody Allenesque scifi farce, if you can imagine such a thing. (Well, there was Sleeper, so I guess maybe you can.) The plot, like those in Allen's earliest films, is a little flimsy and haphazard, but the Child Version of Me insists that you will enjoy it anyway unless you're a complete asshole.

6 shiny twinkling ★'s!

Really wonderful humor, funny language, absurd imagery and fantastic characters. The most fun I've ever had with books. And audiobooks.. I had this on tape, the BBC version, and would listen to this in my car or on my walkman repeatedly.

If you've ever wondered where those references to the number 42 come from, what it would be like to have two heads or what about the answer to life, the universe and everything - look no further.

Actually, I'm gonna head off right now to get the audiobook and pick up a ringtone & notification sound from that. Sorry, got to go!

Yay!

edit: back from picking up the BBC audiobook. OOOhhh, how wonderful. Sorry, gotta go again, walk the dog and listen to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on my smartphone (that walkman is soo history..)
**hurries off whistling the intro tune and grinning crazily**

What does Kim Jong-Il, a thong-wearing mechanic and this missing link furry fellow have to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
n  n
...you owe it to yourself and your family to find out.

With the plethora of wonderful reviews already written for this book by my fellow GRs, I decided instead to provide some helpful, practical advice on why reading this book might benefit my fellow goodreaders. Therefore, as both life management tool and a safety warning, I have compiled my:

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
.
.
n  Number 5n: It’s a pleasant diversion to keep your mind occupied and pass the time while you are getting electrolysis to remove those areas patches blankets of unwanted hair:
n  n
…Yikes, somebody please get that man a Klondike Bar.

n  Number 4n: The book is smart, funny, well-written and full of wonderful commentary on the human condition and clever humor:

n   …The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

t… ‘You know,’ said Arthur, ‘it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.’tt
‘Why, what did she tell you?’tt
‘I don't know, I didn't listen.’

… Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’ ‘But,’ says Man, ‘The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.’ ‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

t …For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons

t… ‘Ah,’ said Arthur, ‘this is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.’n

Number 3: This gentleman DOES NOT appear in the book:

n  n

Seriously, isn’t the absence of thong-boy reason enough to give this book a chance?

Number 2: North Korea's Kim Jong- il hates this book
n  n
...and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

And finally….

Number 1: Understanding the deep, nuanced meaning at the heart of this novel will help better prepare you should you ever find yourself in a situation like this:
n  n

Don’t wait until it’s too late…for yourself and your loved ones, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy today.

If through sharing the above bit of meaningless nonsense wisdom, I have: (i) introduced someone to a worthwhile read, or (ii)provided a means of dealing with the agonizing pain of having chunks of fur ripped from their body, or (iii) shown people a picture of a man in a thong changing a tire, or (iv) pissed off a despotic assclown, or (v) simply provided a safety tip regarding avoiding unsolicited sexual advances in the guise of impromptu gift-giving, than I feel I have accomplished something.

I only did this because I had a collection of funny pics and couldn’t figure out what else to do with them so I bootstrapped them in to a review I care.

3.5 stars.

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Another great reread of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Always entertaining and so absurdly profound!
~~~

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an entertaining romp through the galaxy. It's a book I've read several times (first in high school); however, after reading Kurt Vonnegut's most overtly science fiction novel, The Sirens of Titan, it almost felt like a fresh experience. Of course, Vonnegut and Adams are very different writers. Still, the influence of Vonnegut is evident in Adams' seminal novel of nerd culture. The absurdity of the human condition explored in Sirens (something which Vonnegut refuses to take seriously but can't treat as a punchline either) gets a funny and entertaining twist in Adams' work. While I view Sirens as a better novel, it took Adams to turn that absurdity into such an entertaining adventure.

I had forgotten how frigging frood
This book is which I read
When I was still a hip young dude
With nothing in my head

Not that there is much more today
Inside this ageing brain
—Six poems two novels and a play
Is all it doth retain

But if a Vogon constructor fleet
Came down to smash the Earth
Steamrolling houses into jeet
And streets into gallurph

And I could salvage but one book
Before I hitched a ride
Away from our big crumbling rock
I think I’d pick this Guide

For face to face with the extent
Of Time and Space and Void
I’d need to laugh with Arthur Dent
And cry with Marvin Droid

In my experience, readers either love Adams' books or quickly put them down. I, for example, quite literally worship the words Adams puts on the page, and have read the Hitchhiker's Trilogy so many times that I have large tracts of it memorized. But both my wife and father couldn't get past book one: the former because she found it too silly, and the latter because he found the writing to be more about "the author's personality" than plot and character.

Whatever.

The first three books in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, the Universe and Everything--are inspired lunacy. The ideas, plots, puns, jokes, and phrases that fill their pages have influenced an entire generation of not only writers, but people from all fields. For instance: the Babel Fish software that translates foreign websites for you is named after a species of fish that Adams created in book one; you can find dozens of recipes online for Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters; the chess computer Deep Thought that lost two matches to Gary Kasparov in 1989 was named after a computer in book one; and seriously, who hasn't heard that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42? (For more of these, consult wikipedia.org's entry on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Cultural References".) Chances are, if you're reading these books for the first time, you'll be surprised to see how many everyday things were named after Adams' creations.

The books aren't, of course, without their problems. Adams himself admitted that the Trilogy had, and I paraphrase, a long beginning, a long conclusion, and not much in the middle (though I can't remember where I read that). He was also regularly accused of writing for the sake of cranking out one-liners. The books as a whole jump about like a manic puppy on methamphetamines, and there are at least a few jokes in there that will completely fly over the heads of any readers who lack a basic comprehension of quantum physics.

Despite this, the Hitchhiker's Trilogy remains as the single most entertaining and enjoyable series of books I've ever read--a position they've occupied for some fifteen years. Adams' wit and wisdom still baffle me in their greatness, and he remains to this day one of only two authors who can regularly, consistently make me howl with laughter (the other being Terry Pratchett). Readers beware: if the Adams bug infects you, you will have it for life. And you'll never be sorry you let it bite.