Summary: For nerds who love Adams & Dr. Who, here's your book. I LOL. I had no idea the relation.

Would be thrilled if you checked out my VLOG review at: Youtube: Diary of a Speed Reader or IG: WhereIsMayLing

Notes using Kindle notes. Tryin it out. Still not sure if it will disappear the notes when i disappear the book from my kindle. if anyone knows the answer, plz post.

Hitchhiker's Guide is something I liked but not necessarily something I loved; it wasn't a formative influence on me. I enjoyed the books less than the radio series (3/5 of which, I've only just become aware, were produced after Adams's death) and I remember the film adaptation very fondly, despite Gaiman's negative evaluation of it in this book. So perhaps Adams's style appeals to me most when it's tempered by other influences. But reading this has made me want to revisit his work.

I'm struck by how little success Adams had before H2G2. Even his collaboration with Graham Chapman of Monty Python, which must have felt like being on the verge of a big break, didn't really go anywhere. I can only imagine how demoralizing it was to go from that to doing manual labor for a while. The massive success of Hitchhiker's Guide seems quite sudden.

Adams can also be an inspiration for all of us who've wished to create something but find the actual process of creation an immense struggle:

n  Writing comes easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds. ... All writers, or most, say they find writing difficult, but most writers I know are surprised at how difficult I find it.n

Gaiman notes that only one of Adams's books was written at home. My takeaway is that if you're having trouble getting work done, you should try taking a vacation.

Before sharing some of the fan mail Adams received, Gaiman quotes some of Adams's thoughts on fame: how it's important "not to expose yourself too much to people who are going to tell you you are God's gift to the human race - which you're not." I wonder how much of the human desire to become famous is driven by a hope that others will tell us we're amazing - and a belief that if they do, it will mean it's true.

A few of my favorite tidbits from the book:

- The first theatrical adaptation of the Guide involved seating the audience on a movable hovercar. I'm jealous of those audiences.
- The TV series included an expensive animatronic second head for Zaphod, which largely went to waste both because it was frequently broken and because the actor sometimes forgot to turn it on.
- One fan letter included an elaborate argument that the Ultimate Question was encoded in Morse code within the number 2^42.

I was totally unaware of Adams's interest in endangered species (he traveled around the world to help create the documentary Last Chance to See) and also of his book The Meaning of Liff. The thing I was most eager to try after reading this, though, is the Hitchhiker's Guide game.

Delightful. I love getting insight into the workings of a creative mind, and how alternately tedious and panicky it can sometimes be. Witty and informative both.

I listened to this book via Audible.

I've had this book on my radar for a number of years, but it's only now that it's been recently recorded as an audiobook that I've made the time to read it. If you've ever enjoyed any aspect of Douglas Adams' work, from the Hitchhiker's radio drama to The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, you should absolutely read this to learn more about the amazing man behind the stories.

I first found The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in a bookstore in the summer of 2001, right before starting high school, and reading it countless times during those four years doubtlessly shaped my adolescent brain, affecting my writing and my world view. It was very saddening to learn later that I had discovered the series shortly after Adams' passing, and that there would be no more quirky, hilarious, and genre-bending stories outside of what had already been published.

Reading Don't Panic brings back all my memories from engaging with Adams' work over the years, from that initial read of H2G2, to seeing the movie twice on opening day, to discovering his website and the treasure trove of articles and short stories that gave more insight into his personality. It puts everything in context, explaining the variations between the books and the differences between the TV show and the film (and every other incarnation). It's masterfully written by the one and only Neil Gaiman and I highly recommend you listen to the audiobook narrated by Simon Jones.

I shared thirteen years on this planet with Douglas Adams without knowing who he was, and it wasn't until he left that I fell in love with his writing. I wish he had stuck around longer so I might have had the opportunity to thank him for the impact he's had on my life.

Well done Mr Gaiman! I believe Mr. Adams would have approved. And thank you for the reminder. I’ve been meaning to go out to my podcast app to see if I could track down the original episodes. I found them!

More of a dry biography.

Not enough random madness.

interesting, sometimes, but dry.

Makes me want to leave the planet as soon as possible. In a nice way.

seda raamatut on mõtet lugeda pigem ikka Adamsi kui Gaimani pärast (ehkki joonealused märkused annavad aimu, mis nalja meil G-ga järgmiste aastakümnete jooksul saama hakkab).

arvasin enne, et teadsin Douglas Adamsist ja Hitchhikeri-loost ühtteist, aga üllatusi siin ikka jagus. näiteks selgub, et Adams oli krooniline hilineja ja et viieosalise triloogia mõnedki osad valmisid konkreetselt nii, et kirjastaja pani kirjaniku mõneks nädalaks hotellituppa kinni ja valvas ise ukse ees. rääkimata siis meeleolukatest hetkedest esialgse kuuldemängu lindistamisel, kus näitlejad ühes ruumis lindistasid ja Adams kõrvaltoas sama osa lõppu alles kirjutas.

HHGTTG mitte-väga-õnnestunud teleseriaalist olen mingeid osi isegi näinud, aga seda, et tehti ka arvutimäng (mida Gaiman oma 80ndate lõpu perspektiivist taevani kiidab) küll ei teadnud. juba googeldasin ja tundub, et on võimalik järele proovida.

äramainimist leiavad ka "Meaning of Liff" ja "Last Chance to See" raamatud, mida olen kõiki kunagi lugenud ja nautinud, aga olid üsna meelest läinud. selle eluloo põhjal tundub, et on väärt ülelugemist, sest on sündinud suurema lusti ja vähema pingutusega.

suurim mõistatus selles raamatus aga tabas mind peatükis 13, kus esineb lause: "To give Alan Bell credit, it was a difficult job to do logistically, and you can't Belgium with TV the way you can with radio - the way Geoffrey would keep going till the last minute and keep actors hanging around while stuff was written." Belgium?! googeldasin jälle, aga no see ei tundu olevat legitiimne verb sellises kontekstis. kuna veidraid trükivigu leidsin oma eksemplaris veel, siis misasi see nüüd on, algeline autocorrect möllab? kui kellelgi on olemas mõni teine trükk sellest raamatust, palun öelge mulle, mis teil seal kirjas on.

I’m usually not big on biographies, “Making Of …” books or official companion books to a given franchise. I am, however, big on Douglas Adams, his books, and Neil Gaiman, who happened to write this H2G2 companion guide in 1987, so when I finally had a chance to get a Kindle copy of this, I went ahead. This is the 2009 edition, which means everything from 1988 to 1993 was written by David K. Dickson and everything from 1993 to 2002 by MJ Simpson. Or most everything – Gaiman may have been involved in some of the new additions as well. I'm not sure.

Anyway, this book covers Adams’ start as a writer (Footlights, Monty Python, Doctor Who), his eventual development of the H2G2 radio series and the various adaptations (records, books, TV show, film, computer game, etc), with detailed explanations as to how they got made and why the storyline differs from one format to another. It also covers his Dirk Gently phase, Last Chance To See, the Starship Titanic game, his untimely death in 2001 and his posthumous output, ending with the (written but not yet available at press time) sixth H2G2 novel by Eoin Colfer. There are script excerpts from H2G2 and Doctor Who, and plenty of extended interviews with Adams and other key players involved in the radio series and TV shows.

It’s a fan’s book written by a fan for the fans, but again, when the fan is Neil Gaiman, and you’re also a fan of Gaiman’s, well, you just kind of have to read it, don't you? And so I did, and as a fan of … well just about everything in here (Adams, Gaimain, H2G2, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, radio production, etc), I enjoyed it. Also, respect to Gaiman for not writing a hagiography – he fully acknowledges Adams’ faults as a writer (i.e. his notorious deadline problem), explores why some books were better than others, and why some adaptations were better than others. For fans only, sure, but … oh, you know.

Writing comes easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds.

Neil Gaiman, as usual, has done a masterful job telling the story of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This book is filled with so much about Adams and the various HHGTTG formats, and even though I knew some of it, I learned so much more. A must-read for any HHGTTG fan.

All things Hitchhiker Guide and more. Told in only the way Neil Gaiman can do!

My first Neil Gaiman book. A gift from a nice girl I met in college.