The Douglas Adams story continues , at this point I am just fanboying, read this if you like Douglas Ideas and humor. Actually, just read Douglas Adams for humor.

There is also a lot of observation on the skill of writing and applying humor, which are to me, very valuable. Since I can’t do both.

Also, if you ever want to start the hitchhikers galaxy, listen to the audiobook, it is the way Douglas Adams had intended it to be consumed. The book came after.

Excerpts from the productions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and some of the other works. If you want to read the backstory or are interested in Douglas Adams in general this is the read for you.

An interesting book about Douglas Adams and his life whilst pursuing to write all the different versions of the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. I never knew much about the background of the books and assumed, as mentioned in the book, that the books came before the radio versions, whereas of course he in fact started with the radio broadcasting. Full of explanations and analysis, and funny tales. Excellent companion book to the stories and definitely intrigued me to find the other versions of the stories.

If you have ever stood in a field staring up at the myriad stars in the night sky and wondering just how it came to be that the humanoid life-form known as Douglas Adams managed to dream up such infinitely improbable adventures, or if you have ever stood in front of a vending machine that has just provided you with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea, then in all likelihood you will enjoy this book.

Neil Gaiman has taken time off writing his own fantastic adventures to share with us his research into the life and times of Douglas Adams. I for one am very glad that he did as the story he so masterfully unfolds is both sympathetic and enlightening. Gaiman manages to shed not a little light on Adams' creative process and life, from the rigors and panics of his early days of script writing for Doctor Who then the Hitchhiker's radio series all the way through to the very end of his career. Gaiman does a marvelous job of not only telling the tale but also revealing something of the man who said, 'I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.'

Adams was a unique writer and a comic creator of genius. He died all too young, but this book is a great tribute to a life fully-lived and to a very human humanoid.

It's not anyone's fault that I didn't enjoy this book any more than I did; it's actually to the credit of Mr. Gaiman and everyone else involved that I enjoyed it even this much. You see, I don't like non-fiction and, as a general rule, don't read it. For me, non-fiction gets way too bogged down in facts and too quickly forgets what makes anything worth reading in the first place; ie: a narrative thread to hang onto and someone relatable to root for. Biographies, of which "Don't Panic" is sort of one, gives you the second part, the "someone to root for," but too often gets lost on the path to it's narrative thread by having to stick to the chronological facts exactly as they happened. I gave "Don't Panic" a try, however, because A) it's written about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," one of my favorite books and book series and B) it's written by Neil Gaiman, a certified genius and one of my favorite writers. If Gaiman couldn't find a way to make the story of one of my all-time favorite stories interesting, then such a thing just wasn't possible.

Apparently, it's not possible. Mr. Gaiman does his absolute best here, letting his own sense of humor run free against the landscape Douglas Adams created and he drops in all sorts of deleted bits of Hitchhiker's dialogue amidst the quotes from friends and collegues, but it seems here that Gaiman is so dedicated to giving Adams' story (and the stories he wrote) it's due, that he forgets, or perhaps doesn't feel he has permission to, delete the parts that are just too dry (read: boring) to keep the narrative interesting. Because make no mistake, this book includes EVERYTHING that has ever happened in the world of making The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy one of the best and funniest radio shows/books/video games/movies, etcetera and soforth and so on in the history of the known universe, and while you will learn much about the vagaries of Adams' world-famous procrastination and the corporate ins and outs of the BBC and Hollywood, you will also find yourself nodding off in points, or if not nodding off, certainly wishing the current chapter would come to an end and that the next chapter would be about something completely different. Mr. Gaiman has a deep love and appreciation of Douglas Adams and his work and if you share that love to the same extent, you will find much to enjoy in this book. However, as someone who was mainly interested in the rocky road of the Hitchhiker's Guide with a bit of Dr. Who and Dirk Gently tossed in for good measure, there's an awful lot about conservation specials and climbing Mount Kilamanjaro in a Rhinocerous suit that was set way beyond my interest level. Don't get me wrong, Mr. Gaiman has probably written as good and entertaining a book about Douglas Adams as you could possibly want or expect, but the chapters devoted to projects outside the ones the title led me to expect grind the whole thing down to a screeching halt. This is a book for the truly serious Douglas Adams afficianado; the merely curious should find their entertainment (and their towels) elsewhere.

Although I loved Hitch-hikers guide when I read it, and still do, I would have never picked-up this book if it had been written by anyone else. I really wouldn't think I'd care about all the trivia about the different versions that have appeared over the years - radio shows, TV, books, film. But I like Gaiman's style. He keeps it interesting.

It turns out that it was somewhat interesting to see the creative process at work. The first two books were better than the next two because it was fresh and exciting to him and because they went through a process of evolution from radio show to book. Parts that didn't work were thrown away or re-done. The next two books were done more for money and did not go through much revision.

I wish Adams had lived longer and written more books. But the special circumstances that were responsible for the first book's brilliance likely never would have happened again.

"Bütün hayatım boyunca yazar olma fikrinin büyüsüne kapıldım, ama bütün yazarlar gibi yazmaktan, yazılı olandan hoşlandığım kadar hoşlanmadım."

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of those things that won't fade away. In large part, the future bestseller Neil Gaiman suggests in this work first published in the mid-1980s that Hitchhikers status in popular culture is because of its creator: the late, much-missed Douglas Adams. Charting the course of Adams's life, career, and legacy, Gaiman (along with eventual updaters David K. Dickson, M.J. Simpson, and Guy Adams) takes readers on a journey. One that charts how an aspiring and thinking he had washed-out comedy writer/performer created and expanded across multiple media the Hitchhikers series. More than that, Don't Panic covers everything from Adams's script work on Doctor Who to Dirk Gently and the non-fiction Last Chance to See, to name but a few of the projects covered. Even more remarkable for a book written by four writers across nearly three decades, it comes across pretty much seamless, not to mention in a pastiche style of its subject's writing style.

The result is a first-class read for fans of Adams's work, offering plenty of insights into his books and scripts, not to mention the man himself.

I had to choose a book to read for a school assignment involving non fiction books. I chose Don't Panic, and never regretted the decision once. Written by Neil Gaiman, and added onto by others over the years, Don't Panic uses humor to assist in giving the information that is required to call a Biography a Biography. I found this book easy to get into, and rather enjoyable to do so. The book uses excerpts from Adams' works, and includes interviews with Adams himself, amongst others who we're important to Hitchhikers Guide's many branches of inconsistent retellings, all written by Adams himself, for the most part.

The interviews with Douglas Adams, and others who were there during the quoted events, really help the understanding, as they give one a first person account of what it was like. Don't Panic manages to avoid the dull fact spewing of other biographies; Using humor to make the facts of the time more interesting really helped me want to keep reading.

The book even features praise from the subject of it, Douglas Adams. "It's all absolutely, devastatingly true... except the bits that are false" - Douglas Adams

The comedy that was Douglas Adams life is already interesting to be told about, and this book really highlights the funny bits. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about either 1. Douglas Adams, or 2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'd even recommend it to people who don't care about either, and would just like to read something positively fascinating.

A thoroughly enjoyable book. I read the 2009 re-issue, so it is more up to date but it also goes to show how much more could be added since then, with Dr Who books, stage shows, the animated Shada and the sixth radio series.
It told me a lot of what I already knew, as a fan. It also told me enough that I didn’t know to keep me surprised and entertained.
It’s made me want to go out and read the official Adams biographies, so I guess that’s something.

A great book detailing how Douglas Adams cameup with the udea and various incarnations of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Loved the book , as an almost life long fan of HHGTTG and subsequent variations it was wonderful to have a guide to the guide as it were.

Neil Gaiman's prose was worthy of Adam's. Full of humor and warmth.

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' was a shock to Radio 4 when it burst onto the scene with its anarchic and unique brand of surreal humour. It was the radio show that Douglas Adams was fated to write. And rewrite for television. And rewrite as a novel. And rewrite as a treatment for a major motion picture. The history of the creation of this monolith of British comedy is contained in this book.

Don't Panic.

Gaiman has written a clear and concise history of Adams' professional life and it makes for a fascinating insight into one of the great comic masters of our time.