I have a funny history with this book. When I was young, my mom got the audio of this book on tapes from the library (yup I guess I’m getting old). Well, some how the first tape got lost and my mom had to the huge fine for a new tape. As these things all ways happen, we found the lost tape (uhhh why it was in my back pack in my room I don’t know). So we had the first part of this book on audio and I would listen to it while cleaning my room (the things kids growing up with loaded phones with internet will never understand). I have so much of this part of the book memorized in Adam’s voice from that tape. Every single time I walk in to an airport I say to my self “as pretty as an airport..”.

Later, in late junior high or early high school, I loaned a boy I had a crush on my paperback copy I’d owned at that point (hey! I couldn’t just live on the first couple chapters forever!) and that boy ended up losing my crappy paperback copy and bought me a hardback copy in return. I got upgraded! Thank you random boy crush! Anyways, read the book or better yet find the audio read by Adams. It’s a load of fun.

This used to be one of my favorite books when I was 18 (that was more than a few years ago *cough* thirty something *cough*). I was definitely going through a ‘I love everything Douglas Adams’ phase at the time and while I still like this book because sometimes the ridiculousness of the plot and randomness of how everything happens is still so much fun I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did back then.

There are some great things in this. There is Dirk who is a funny and severely quirky character who is often very creative in his role as a holistic detective. I really do laugh at the odd way in which he sees the world and interacts with it.

n  “He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his method of “Zen” navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.”

“When the girl sitting at the next table looked away for a moment, Dirk leaned over and took her coffee. He knew that he was perfectly safe doing this because she would simply not be able to believe that this had happened. He sat sipping at the lukewarm cup and casting his mind back over the day.” n

While if I met him in real life I’d probably like to deck him, in the story I find his antics and musings completely fascinating and sometimes hilarious.

Some of the story seemed more like just random events to me this time through and while situationally funny I wasn’t sure how it all moved together sometimes. Thor having performance issues was entertaining as was Kate trying to figure out why right after she left the ticketing gate at Heathrow Airport did it blow un and what is with all the penguins in her subconscious.

n  “Insofar as she recognized at all that she was dreaming, she realized that she must be exploring her subconscious mind. She had heard it said that humans are supposed only to use about a tenth of their brains, and that no one was really clear what the other nine tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard it suggested that they were used for storing penguins.”n

Adams wrote some wonderful jokes throughout the story but now that I’ve read so many more books I see where there are some real pacing problems and the actual story is a bit lackluster overall, but the jokes are great.

Even though this isn’t as great as I once remembered it being I still so love to dive into this type of humor from time to time and just give into the improbability and impossibility of it all.

I first read this book in the late 1980s and I completely loved it. Even more than Douglas Adams' better known series, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

In some ways it's quite dated. Answering machines, no cell phones, no GPS, smoking in public, record players. But for all of that it still works which is testament to the genius of Douglas Adams.

The back jacked of this book promised me it was "Funnier than Psycho" and "Shorter than War and Peace." Now, I thought that these were jokes. I assumed that that tag was cute and that it would be quite funny. In fact, funnier than Psycho is about as good as the humor was. It was there, but rarely very funny and generally simply kinda cute. It was in fact shorter than War and Peace.

I didn't expect much for plot. It is a Douglas Adams book after all, but I had hoped for decent characters. Unfortunately there is so much going on that none of the characters has a real chance to develop. The shifting character perspective didn't help either. The book was quite short, and chapters told from multiple character points of view don't really have enough room to let the characters grow, just paint the bare bones plot.

The ending was just bad. Not that what happened was bad, but it seemed that Adams' editors told him he needed to cut 50 pages, and he subsequently decided to cut 50 of the last 55. The action was jammed together, not fleshed out, and a little hard to follow. For as mediocre as the rest of the book was, the ending was a let down.

I don't think I'd recommend the book to anyone except the most devoted Adams fan. Unless your reading goal includes being able to say "Yeah, I've read ALL of his books," I don't see any reason why you should pick this up.

After having read/struggled through hitchhikers guide and the next few of the series I was sure that Douglas Adams was just too much for me to handle. So, after having an insistent friend assure me that this book was not as hard on the mind, I decided to forsake my very morals and read a sequel before the first book

HILARIOUS. Great writing. FUNKY plot. Crazy

Douglas Adams brings his trademark wit to The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul (I say that like I've read more than two books from him), and when it works, it works.

The book starts pretty good, mixing detective fiction with Adams' sense of humor. He showcases his talent for mixing the weird and sort of creepy into a humorous twist, especially in the early chapters where the strange events really take off.

But then things get messy. The story loses its way about a quarter through, becoming a tangled and confusing slop of nothingness. Like I can get a few themes from this book but it really feels like a pointless tale. And I understand that not all books need to mean something or have some themes to them, but they have to be enjoyable.

While everything does come together in the end, getting there feels like more work than fun. The jokes are there, but they can't quite save the mediocre story. It's not a horrible book. Adams still makes you laugh. Best to think of it as a good joke that goes on a bit too long. Sorry Max.

2.4/5

Continuing in my Douglas Adams re-read, I checked out Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul from the library, as I seem to have misplaced my copy.

The story opens with Kate Schechter attempting to catch a flight to Oslo, even though Fate seems to be conspiring against her. An explosion, deemed an "act of God" confounds her plans. She becomes involved in the events around whom the god involved in the aforementioned act are developing.

Meanwhile, Dirk Gently, holistic detective, remembers that he has a client, with whom he was supposed to meet about five hours previous to his realization. He arrives a little too late to assist with the problem for which he is hired, but ends up doing some detective work anyways. The two protagonists eventually collide (literally) and the story proceeds from there.

This novel posits the question "What happens to the immortal gods once humanity is done with them?"; a theme also explored by Neil Gaiman's American Gods :: checks publication dates:: Yes, Douglas was first, by about 12 years, but both are very good, IMHO. Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul is, I believe, a better written book than its predecessor, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Adams seems to have a better grip on where he wants to go with the story.

Recommended to those who like their alternative universes well-leavened with humour.

7/13/21 ETA: This was even more funny than I remembered, and I think I understood the end better this time, though it still gets a bit frantic. Revisiting Adams made me happy.

Cant believe this is the first time I’ve written a review for this. I’ve read and listened to it dozens of times.

Sublime.

So it goes.

Şahane bir kitap okudum, ŞA-HA-NE!
...
Milenyum Üçlemesinde Stieg Larsson Lisbeth Salander'ın Cebelitarık'ı sevdiğini söyler ve bir kayadan bahseder. Üçlemenin getirdiği her şey için belki sırtını dayayıp dinleyebileceği bir yerdir bu kaya... Adams ile çay saatim bitince istedim ki göklerin tanrısı Thor tıpkı Kate'e yaptığının aynısını yani "bir çiçek demetini kaldırır gibi" beni de kaldırsın ve taaa buralardan tam da bu kayanın dibine bıraksın. Tanrı değil mi yanıma hiç bitmeyen soğuk siyah bira ve belki biraz tuzlu fıstık ile birlikte kitaplarımı da versin. Olsun bu böyle olsun!

Not actually as funny or great as I had remembered, thought now I see I only gave it two stars the first time around so obviously I actually thought the same at the time too. Memory is a funny thing.