I love love love love love "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" so I was bound to read this sooner or later. I'm not quite sure how to describe this book. It's... breezy, I guess. It's linear. It's a brief and tidy little biography of Douglas Adams and a pretty rapid summary of how "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" came to be. Very factual, but Gaiman's writing is lively enough to keep it from being too dry. It focuses a lot on the radio show, which is less interesting to me as I far prefer the novel. A pretty good read for an airplane or bus trip, as it's hardly heavy lifting. Hoopy froods who already know where their towels are will find it worth reading through at least once. Non-fans should go read "The Guide" and the other five books in the trilogy first and then read this one after they become fans (as they inevitably will, of course).

Mostly boring.
I glanced and saw it had so many positive reviews and, for Pete's sake, Neil Gaiman wrote it, it talks about Doctor Who and obviously, the HGTHG, how could I not like it?
I didn't.
Parts were kinda sorta occasionally rarely interesting. But it read like research report, without the fancy graphs and complete with long dry quotations.
Gaiman has such a knack for story telling, he could have easily collected all the information and then retold the stories in his own voice.

Really, the only thing I found interesting was that Douglas Adams invented Wikipedia. Seriously. It's not called that. But the description is very specific and is exactly how Wiki works.

I'm a bit surprised that it took me this long to pick up this book. Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the book that turned me into an audiobook listener and I have read almost all of his work (ok, Last Chance to See, still doesn't grab me). He was the first author death that I really felt and was sad about--and all that was before I even started enjoying Neil Gaiman. A biography of Douglas Adams by Neil Gaiman should have been a book I read a long time ago and well, since "time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so," I finally got around to listening to this and I am overall, happy with what I heard. It's not a particularly deep biography but Gaiman does bring a share of insights and connections about Adams' work that I enjoyed. Starting with his early life in school and then into his high school and college experiences, Gaiman relies on the standards of documentation, interviews with Douglas, and people in his life to draw out his challenges to find his niche as a radio and textual writer (among eventually other media) whose creative, observations, and humor were translated into two particular series that are still loved by readers decades later. Although the original biography was published in the 1980s, this updated version covers up to 2009--which is interesting to consider since so much of Douglas's work continued to be made between original publication and 2009. In fact, the book ends just as talk of the final book to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series was a book--authored by Eoin Colfer, Salmon of a Doubt--to be published soon. But what makes that fun and interesting is that because there have been several editions and reworkings of Don't Panic, it actually mimics the evolution of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy almost perfectly (A theme throughout Don't Panic is how The Hitchhiker's Guide is intentionally changed or augmented in different media to work within the media--ideally--and that Douglas constantly said he was done with it, only to keep coming back to it time and again. In general, this is a book for the fandom--to get to feel closer to the author whom they love and squeeze just a bit more knowledge and experience out of their engagement with Adams' work; in many ways, we're all Ford Prefects trying to expand our entry--even if it's just adding one more word to our understanding of the series. Still, those looking for some deeper and more meaningful exploration of Adams' life and work may feel this misses the mark.

Excellent read, and almost as funny as the subject matter. Why didn't they get Gaiman to write the final book?

My only quibble is that the letters of the title on the cover are not large and friendly enough.

A companion to Douglas Adams' career, this book covers everything from the initial idea of "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" through to the radio series, novels, game, TV series and eventual movie. It also covers Adams' work on Dirk Gently, Doctor Who and his non fiction writings.

As it is mostly written by a young Neil Gaiman it definitely carries the same irreverent voice as Adams' own work, although there are sections added subsequently that are informative but slightly less "Neil Gaiman" in tone.

That being said I did find the later chapters pretty interesting as I'm a big fan of the radio series that were produced after Adams' death.

A lot of this may be well known to fans of Douglas Adams, but a lot of it was new to me, so I suspect would be the case for any slightly more than casual fan of his work.

While I would usually listen to the audiobook of this kind, as soon as I saw that it was narrated by Simon Jones, the original incarnation of Arthur Dent from "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" radio and TV series, I bought it without question.

And it's worth it just to hear him read the following:

"Certainly 'So Long and Thanks For All The Fish' is a widely different book to its predecessor. Gone are the big heroics and wild invention to be replaced by... a love story. We had to somehow marry off Arthur, something that was pretty hard to imagine."
Indeed as much as we all adore Simon Jones' portrayal of the hapless Arthur Dent, he's hardly the obvious romantic lead.

His voice is so reassuring, so familiar that as soon as I heard his voice it took me back to my teen years listening to the original radio series on cassette, yes I'm old.

My biggest criticism is that the book doesn't translate that well to audio, somewhat ironically. There are a lot of sections where it's confusing who is actually spaeking, whether its Neil Gaiman (as he occasionally makes comments in the first person) or it's a quote from someone interviewed for the book. Often it won't be until the end of the paragraph where a "...said Geoffrey Perkins" is added that I can figure it out.

Aside from that I enjoyed it, learned a bunch of things I didn't know and have decided to re-listen to the radio series once again.

This book is good because Douglas Adams is good, and because his story is interesting and sparkles with humor and wit as he did.

But I put this book on hold from the library before the Neil Gaiman scandal broke widely in the US, so by the time it arrived hearing his voice read the introduction and knowing that this book is yet another example of how he promotes himself by affixing his star to the brightest in his field really, really grated on me.

Well, finally I know how many versions, formats and productions of Hitchhiker's Guide were made.

Οξυδερκής ανάλυση όχι μόνο των πέντε βιβλίων της τριλογίας (sic) του Douglas Adams " Γυρίστε το Γαλαξία με Ωτοστόπ", αλλά και του τρόπου σκέψης του συγγραφέα συνολικά. Ο Gaiman καταφέρνει με το γνωστό black humour του να καλύψει τα κενά που μας άφησαν τα βιβλία (προσωπικά, το δικό μου κενό είναι ότι δεν υπάρχουν άλλα), αλλά και να μας βάλει πίσω από τη σκηνή στην προσπάθεια για το γύρισμα της ομώνυμης σειράς και ταινίας, καθώς και της δημιουργίας των video games.
Θα μπορούσε να είναι ένα πολύ βαρετό ανάγνωσμα, επειδή εμένα όμως μου άρεσε περισσότερο η βιογραφία του Τιμ Ρόμπινς για παράδειγμα, παρά τα ίδια του τα βιβλία, καταλαβαίνετε ότι μου φάνηκε πολύ ενδιαφέρον!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was at one point the most important book in my life. When I was about 11, I reread the whole series monthly. My AIM screename was Zarkology1, after the great Prophet Zarquon and the exclamation 'Zark!'. So I'm only kidding a little when I say that for me, the books approach holy text.

Don't Panic by Neil Gaiman (that Neil Gaiman) is a very different approach to the story behind the story, and the career of Douglas Adams. Adams followed in the wake of a classic tradition of absurdist British humor, most notably PG Wodehouse and Monty Python (though his actual working relationship with the Pythons was minimal). At Cambridge, he was an anti-establishment figure floating around the Footlights comedy troupe. Afterwords, he drifted into radio at the BBC, where the idea for Hitchhiker finally landed. The radio show was a cult classic, the first book an international success, and then it was off to the races, with musical theater, TV adaptation, potential movie deals, and high-tech transmedia ventures.

Gaiman keeps it light and breezy, but reading between the lines, there are struggles. Adams' problems with deadlines was legendary, but where is the line between writer's block and chronic depression? The best of Hitchhiker is in the pauses and asides, the words not written, the perfect absurdity and humanity of the gestalt. Hitchhiker touched me, and it touched millions of people, and there's not much of the 'why' or 'how' except "well, Adams mixed Star Wars and Monty Python in a way that was perfect for the times, and totally beyond the ability of studio executives to understand."

It's been 40 years since the first book was published. I don't know much, except that I know I need to find my omnibus collection and reread them for the first time in a decade.

A moving tribute. It’s a biography with two subjects, Adams as well as the Hitchhiker’s canon, both much larger than life; Gaiman treats both with respect (but not adulation) and with warm humor. The other authors, well, they try. (The book is actually a 2009 update of a 1987 work, and it shows: the latter half feels hastily put together, its tone more checklist than paean).

Despite the wait-what-happened discomfort in the second half, it’s a very good book: informative, caring, with insights and context that I, a lower-case-eff fan, appreciate enough to make me want to reread the “trilogy”; and poignant enough to make me ache again over his death.

Mi sto rendendo conto di avere qualche problema con le biografie, soprattutto quando si tratta di autori o attori o comunque personaggi che amo od ho amato.
Il problema è che, volenti o nolenti, siamo tutti pronti a mitizzare un personaggio che amiamo, a vederne il genio artistico e poi a rimanere un po' delusi quando ne scopriamo dei lati che, in qualche modo, non ci piacciono: poi ci sono i fan "talebani", che qualunque cosa faccia il loro mito diranno che è perfetta, ma questo è un altro discorso.
Ecco, leggere della vita di Douglas Adams fa un po' quell'effetto o, comunque, lascia un po' di amaro in bocca, perché dietro il genio comico di un personaggio del genere si celava una persona scostante, inaffidabile lavorativamente, indecisa, insicura. Niente di nuovo rispetto a tanti suoi emuli, ma è indubbio che un po' di dispiacere ci sia.
Poi, oh, stiamo parlando di qualcuno che non solo ha creato la guida galattica, ma l'ha riscritta non so quante volte, una per ogni media in cui è stata portata (e, ricordate, i libri NON sono stato il primo, primato che spetta alla radio); però, ecco, in qualche modo Adams era la Guida, nel senso che i suoi tentativi di discostarsene sono spesso finiti in un niente di fatto o non hanno avuto lo stesso successo del capostipite e nel senso che ogni volta che si era ripromesso di non scriverne più finiva per tornarci: per soldi? Per pressioni? Per aspettative? Difficile dirlo, certo è, però, che alcuni volumi della trilogia in cinque atti non lo soddisfecero per niente e, guarda caso, sono d'accordo quasi completamente.
Adams era un genio comico, sì, ma preso nel suo mondo e difficile da gestire nel mondo reale: difficile anche per se stesso, penso non ci fosse la minima traccia di malafede nel suo comportamento, ma i continui desideri di iniziare qualcosa e poi perderne il gusto, il mancare le scadenze, il proporre collaborazioni per poi tirarsi indietro, denunciano un'instabilità che non lo rendeva sicuramente la miglior persona con cui lavorare.
Gli si perdonava tutto perché era un brav'uomo (riferito agli amici) e perché portava soldi (riferito a editori e case di produzione).
Non sto a commentare particolarmente la scrittura di Gaiman in questo libro: una biografia non è un romanzo e si può solo dire se lo stile è scorrevole e si legge bene; da questo punto di vista il libro è ineccepibile, almeno nei capitoli originali scritti da Gaiman, molto meno in quelli aggiuntivi scritti da altri (figlio di Adams incluso).

Lo consiglio?
Non saprei.
Se volete sapere tutto ma proprio tutto sui retroscena della Guida, leggetelo.
Ma se preferite tenere un alone di magia dietro il buon pazzoide morto troppo presto, allora forse lasciate perdere.