This book was one of the funniest and original books I’ve read.

English: https://elifthereader.com/books/the-h...
Türkçe: http://kitaplikkedisi.com/2012/03/dou...

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.

I read most of this series when I was younger and had only one book left to complete it. I saw this gorgeous piece of paper and ink in the bookstore and knew it was finally time to finish her off. Since it had been so long in between I decided to give the first four a reread which is not my usual at all. I'm a read it once and move on kind of girl. I found the introduction to be super interesting because I had no idea there were so many different versions of this story out there and I do love a little behind the scenes fact sharing.

Here is my book by book review of this amazing collector's edition with a little canned cream corn talk mixed in for fun:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (5 Stars)

My grandparents had a closet full of canned goods and books in their back bedroom and it was where I happened upon this book a quarter of a century ago (I’m old enough now that I can say ‘ol timer shit like that). The absurd amount of canned creamed corn was amazing to behold, but this book with its quirky cover was where it was at. I’m pretty sure I devoured it in no time and was ready for the next installment of Arthur Dent does the Universe.

n  This is the story of a man named Arthur Dent and what happens to him after a friend rescues him moments before Earth becomes no more. Hitchhiking across the universe with a towel in one hand and a ridiculously written guide in the other, with barely a moment taken to absorb each new and exciting thing that comes his way.n

I found the writing to be superb with the perfect blend of dry humor, sarcasm, wit and randomness that I love. The characters were stellar, and the story was out of this world (if you aren’t rolling your eyes after reading that sentence you should be).

Five stars to a book that is a gazillion times better than canned cream corn.


The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (4 Stars)

This was another back bedroom closet find. I had it and the next two in the series tucked away in a hidden corner. I did not have any of that damned canned cream corn though. Seriously, who eats that crap? By how untouched they looked in my grandparents’ closet, not even them. I would like to believe it was an end of the world decoy canned goods stash. I’m thinking a person could peel the labels and put them on the good stuff and use the label free cans as weapons or something.

n  Arthur Dent continues his adventures through space forwards, backwards and possibly even sideways with the same fun-loving bunch of characters plus a few not so fun-loving ones.n>
Another excellent read. It didn’t feel like a new book but a continuation of a story I was dying to hear more of. The writing maintained its excellence and the characters were still quite entertaining. I didn’t love this read as much as the first, but it did get the job done.

Four stars to a book that made me excited to have a secret closet even if it contained canned cream corn.


Life, the Universe and Everything (4 Stars)

Pretty sure I liked this book more than I did the previous one but not enough to equal a star. I would say maybe a smidge over a half. I did however like it more than the canned cream corn it shared shelf space with. You are probably asking yourself right now, “Is she going to keep bringing up that damn canned cream corn?” and the answer is hell yes because annoying can be entertaining when you are doing it to someone else.

n  Arthur’s adventures turn a bit more serious when protecting the universe from destruction becomes the name of the game.n

Another great book that kept the story going in a way that didn’t bore or become repetitive. The author’s voice has to be the absolute best part of all this series. For once I can say it wasn’t the characters that kept me coming back for more but the man behind the words. I got the feeling his written word matched the way he was in person and he most definitely was a person I would have loved to have met.

Four stars to a book that almost made me forget about the closet canned cream corn for a moment.


So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (3 Stars)

This is the book that had a cover that stuck out in my mind just as much as the first book in the series did. This is also the book that began the downward spiral into lower star ratings. Even though I didn’t love it as much as I did the first three, (wait for it) I did love it more than my grandparents love canned cream corn (I am not sorry at all).

n  Arthur falls in love.n

Honestly, this one felt out of place. I didn’t want it or ask for it, and I sure as hell didn’t expect a mushy love story to fall into my lap when it did. The story that took place around it wasn’t bad but this dip into cootie pool was more than enough to contaminate it.

Three stars to a book that made me think about romance mixed with canned cream corn and man that is so freaking gross.


Mostly Harmless (3 Stars)

This was my welcome back to the series book after twenty-five years of doing the school, work, marriage, children and lots more work life. It had been on my list for a while and when I happened upon the collector’s edition I knew it was time. I must admit that it was a little odd seeing this book on a shelf without canned cream corn keeping it company.

n  Doing your own thing is the name of the game for Arthur until the universe happens again.n

This was my least favorite of all the books. The story wasn’t as entertaining, and I found myself putting it down to do other things. I can’t blame my rereading of the other’s first because devouring a book series in one gulp is kind of my thing. The characters were just as zany as before and I had zero complaints about the writing style. I think the fault was all in the plot and there just isn’t much you can do when that isn’t top notch.

Three stars to a book that is coming dangerously close to blending in with the canned cream corn at grandma’s house.


Young Zaphod Plays it Safe (3 Stars)

I was left wanting more after reading this. If this had been a full book and stayed on track with the path it was on I would have liked it more than the last two books in the series. It reminded me of how entertaining Zaphod could be and why he entertained me so in the first book. I'm torn on the rating because it was good but there wasn't enough there to satisfy me.

Three stars to a short story that make me want to throw canned cream corn at someone.

Soooooooooo much fun! Even those on a probability fault line can agree that this is gold.

Masterful comedy sci-fi, originally BBC Radio 4 productions in the 70s, later adapted to novel format. Incredibly imaginative and funny. My favourite character is Zaphod Beeblebrox.

I didn’t get my laptop but I am still writing a review. Bravo for me.

This series was so fun to read – at least the first three books. I’ll get to that later.

I never realized how many modern-day phrases were references to this series. I knew there was a movie but I never watched it, only a few bits in passing while my brother was watching it.

I didn’t have a problem with reading this series, it didn’t put me into a slump, but I can see how it can do this to any reader. Because there is just so much information being thrown at you and you need to filter what is important and what is not and how can you do that if the very point of this book is not to make sense. Usually, the things you never thought could be important are important here – like towels. Towels are a big thing here.

You will have a wild ride with our diverse set of characters as they go through adventures in space. In the first three books.

The fourth book is different from the rest of the series, being a love story. And it’s not even set in space. So that was kind of disappointing. But the reading experience was okay for me.

Unlike the fifth book that was just bad. That is the sole reason why this book is a 4-star read and not a 5-star read.

If you are new to sci-fi check out the first three books and if you like them, check out the last two of the series, but set your bar really low. This was a unique series and I am pretty sure I won’t read anything like this soon, so kudos to that too. Now so long and thanks for the fish.
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This was a wild and fun ride. All of the reviews are coming in after I get my laptop back.

Just as funny as advertised, but I made the mistake of reading the collection of all five novels, and - what's more - trying to read them all in one go. Once I got about halfway through Life, the Universe, and Everything, it had stopped being funny and had gotten a little confusing. Adams is excellent at humor, not so much at plot.

So, for clarification: 5 stars for the original Hitchhiker's, 4 for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and 3 stars for the others.

If you are going to read the complete “Hitchhiker” series then I recommend buying “The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” as it contains all five of the books in the series. Having them in one volume encourages you to read them soon after each other, and I think that enhances the experience.
The collection also contains the horrid story “Young Zaphod Plays It Safe” and it is a waste of space in the text. But, that is a small quibble, and the story is short.
I enjoyed the series, mostly, and I would recommend it to certain readers. For more specifics see below where you will find my review for all five of the novels in chronological order.

1. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is short and never gives much development (character or plot) but it seems appropriate for this tale. The novel reminds me a lot of Vonnegut in its style and presentation. Short chapters and biting satire mixed with fantastical plot devices. And it all works!
The introduction and first chapter of this novel are funny and pull you into the book. There are moments that are so clever and witty that you will find yourself re-reading certain lines for no reason other than to enjoy them once again. Chapter 23 of the text (perhaps the book’s most famous) is brilliant and to the point. It is very short, funny, and kind of wise. Its opening line, “It is an important and popular fact that things are not often what they seem” could be a thematic statement for the book. One of the novel’s key devices is the idea that Earth is an experiment, and without revealing too much, I will say that it gives the novel its focus.
Also enjoyable are the characters of Marvin the paranoid android and Eddie, the shipboard computer on “The Heart of Gold” (a spaceship that serves as the novel’s main setting). Some of the text’s best moments and lines belong to them, and I was more endeared to them than I was to the novel’s two human characters.
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a delightful and quick read and I will be continuing my trip through the galaxy with its sequel, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.”

2. “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” reads like a typical adventure tale, and it is more in this genre than its predecessor “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The restaurant of the title is a place where the characters go and can literally watch the end of the Universe during dinner. Trust me, the way Mr. Adams explains it, it makes sense!
The plot of the novel begins right where its predecessor left off, and the set up is that space psychiatrists plot to kill Arthur Dent and Trillian because they are the last survivors from Earth, which we found out in “Hitchhiker” was an experiment designed to answer the purpose of “Life, the universe, and everything.” The psychiatrists do not want that question answered because they would be out of business. And with this clever premise it is off to the races.
In this delightful and quick romp of a novel we get to meet space psychiatrists, rock stars, and the ruler of the universe. And it goes without saying that none of it is as expected. The satire of the rock stars and bands is wonderful, as is the clever jab at rock stars that use to flee tax jurisdictions to record albums. In the book one mega space rock star even goes into “suspended death” for two years for the tax deductions.
The last 20 pages of the book contain some pretty rough satire of modern professions and social dynamics. And then the text ends abruptly, like Mr. Adams was leading you into the next novel. It worked, because I will be continuing my journey with these hitchhikers. You should too!

3. Of the three novels that I have read so far out of the five that compose the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series, “Life, the Universe and Everything” is the weakest, but it is still incredibly good. The whole book feels like a Monty Python sketch, but the first few chapters especially feel that way. It works, but it does get a little tiresome after a while.
The humor in this text is mostly through wordplay. It serves the book well and is a strength of this novel because in terms of plot “Life, the Universe and Everything” is all over the place. The unity of the wordplay and humor serves to coalesce (as much as it can) a very scattered text. Especially enjoyable is a clever discourse on swear words, their usage and how they evolve and change. In the world of this novel the word “Belgium” is their equivalent of the F-word. This part of the novel is a witty piece of satirical writing, and is very enjoyable.
There are two interesting bits in this novel I would like to share in this review. The first is one of my favorite cameo appearances in this entire series thus far, the character of Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged. He is an alien who through an accident has immortality and is bored to tears. So he makes it a mission to insult everyone in the Universe. His occasional appearances in this story are a joy. Another aspect of the text that I enjoyed is that the ultimate question and answer to everything remains unexplained. There is also a thinly veiled satire aimed at religious symbols where it seems Adams is mocking finding value in such things. It is an engaging section of the text.
I will be moving on to the fourth book in this series soon. I have enjoyed this ride so far!

4. This fourth novel in the series begins exactly as the first one, word for word, with one small twist. You can decide for yourself what you think of that twist. I did not care for it, as it shifts the focus in this text from the ones that preceded it. “So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish” begins with Arthur Dent back on earth, which is no longer destroyed (it was blown up in the first book of the series) but the explanation for how this is so is best glossed over if one wants to fully enter the world of the text. This novel does not feature the other characters from the previous three, so fans of Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian will be disappointed. Other series staples such as Ford Prefect and Marvin the Android make cameos in the novel’s final pages, but they seemed forced and not all that interesting in the context Mr. Adams uses here.
This are some shining moments in this book, among them chapter 25 in which the author’s persona intrudes into the text to answer the question “Does Arthur Dent f-word?” We also get to see “God’s final message to His creation”, and it is actually not a letdown.
At one point in the novel Arthur tells someone “See first, think later, then test” as the best way to approach something one does not fully comprehend. If you don’t take the last two parts of his advice while you are reading “So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish” you can enjoy the text.
I am anxious to see how the series concludes in installment 5, and I will be traveling that way soon.

5. "Mostly Harmless" is a great example of a writer extending a series by one book too many. Of the five books in the "Hitchhiker" series numbers four and five don't add much to it, and take a lot from it. "Mostly Harmless" just feels out of sync with the books that preceded it. Stylistically it is also very different, the chapters are much longer, the humor is much rarer, etc. It is not a good change.
A big flaw of the text is that our hero Arthur Dent does not even show up until chapter seven, and even when he does there is no transition from how we left him in book four, "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." From chapter seven to almost the final 40 pages the chapters alternate point of view between Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. I found Prefect's story boring until his storyline merges with Dent's about 3/4s of the way through the novel.
The book does have some good moments, particularly chapter nine in which it finally feels like the other novels in the series. Arthur Dent goes to the planet Hawalius to seek the advice of the oracles that inhabit it. In this chapter we see sparks of the Douglas Adams from the previous texts and it is a joy to read. There is also a witty cameo appearance by Elvis, which is cleverly woven into the plotline.
As has been stated in previous reviews "Mostly Harmless" is a dark text, almost nihilistic in its themes. The series ends in a uncharacteristic manner. Although as a reader I did not like the ending per se, I do feel it was kind of appropriate. It feels jarring and out of place at the same time. I can't say much more without spoiling it. Regardless it does give the series a sense of definite completion, and I think that is a good thing.

I think I might need to lie down and cry a little now... [Prtf]

Don't panic.
I absolutely loved this book.
I started reading it a while ago. Since it has all five of Adams' Hitchhiker's "Trilogy" in it, I usually took a break between stories, so it took a bit of time to finish the whole thing.

This n  The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyn has far and away made it to the top of my "favourite books" list.

Douglas Adams has a way of making simple things funny, and funny things hilarious, and all while sprinkling in a bit of sarcasm, random events, and science. It isn't your typical science fiction. Instead, he takes a very chaotic, or seemingly chaotic, universe and makes it a parable of humour to our own. He found a way to make our anti-hero, Arthur Dent, funny and inspiring--even if he only reminded us that we needed to keep an eye on our biscuits, and make a fresh pot of tea. I'm pretty sure Marvin the Paranoid Android is my spirit animal, but all of The Hitchhiker's Guide cast is interesting, funny, and lovable in their own way.

I love Adams' imagination and writing style. He has such an eloquent, concise, and extremely witty way of telling just enough information to keep the story going, but not too much that everything is laid out for you already--he only gives relevant information, and he gives your imagination the chance to fill in the blanks--if it wants to. I think this makes the story rather brilliant, because isn't that what we do with life already? I find that I enjoy stories like this more than typical writing, where authors have a tendency to carry on about things that only make me yawn, or lay out so much information that I'm forced to perceive the world exactly how they want me to... and that just isn't much fun.

I definitely think it is one of those books that everyone should read at least once in their life. I could go on about how much I loved these stories and how much wisdom can be found in them, but I think it's easier to just say "read them and find out!"

I don't know what everyone is so bent out of shape about-- the ending was perfect, and exactly what i've been hoping it would be.
my only regret is that I didn't read these when I was 12, because my head would have exploded. it's too bad I'm not able to go back in time to give them to myself, because if I could, it already would have happened.

It was a horrible, uninteresting, and confusing book where it would lead you into a world of nonsense and chaos. First of all, there was no point to it. The characters lacked any sophistication and were outright stupid. Some people may consider it funny, but I was not one of them. From page one, I wanted it to simply end. Not because I would go on a trip of glory and fun, but because it was just lacking any interest. It wasn't something that pulled the reader in and kept them excited throughout the book, eager to know more. The jokes didn't make any sense. The characters didn't make any sense. Even the whole plot had no point to it! I really regret picking up this book (since page one). I thought maybe I needed to read a bit more to get into it, but big mistake. It just went further downhill. Personally, I didn't like it and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. But hey, if you want to go for it, try it out, and maybe you'll like this style of book, but I certainly didn't. If this was your summer reading book like it was mine, I would suggest to SparkNote it and rather use your time to read a better book.