I'm very torn about rating this book, because it's just so many things crammed into a binding. Basically, it's a collection of essays that Douglas Adams had written, including a short story from the Hitchhiker's Guide series, and the first few chapters of an incomplete Dirk Gently book. It's so, so much fun reading what Douglas Adams writes. His writing is full of energy and wit and charm, and is just a pleasure to read. That's one of the great parts of the book. But it's clear that the editors who put this book together after Adams's death just sort of jumbled a bunch of his stuff together. It feels like a cash grab, which is really irritating after you read the multiple introductions written by people who just feel utterly pleased with themselves and their ability to package somebody else's work. So, really, the book is kind of a mess and unfocused, but is sometimes really fun. I probably wouldn't recommend it. Instead, read the books that Adams actually has written and completed. Reread them when you finish them. They, and Douglas Adams, are terrific.

This technically is the 3rd book in the Dirk Gently series. Sadly, it's not really a Dirk Gently book. You see, before Douglas Adams could write/finish this third book, he died of a sudden heart attack in a gym in Santa Barbara in 2001.

But he left behind fragments of chapters or chapters and their rewritings and a lot of other notes on his various computers. His wife, daughter, agent, editor, assistant and other people then pieced together what is now The Salmon of Doubt which would have been the title of the third book.

This book is divided into three parts:
1) Life
2) The Universe
3) And Everything
which is a tribute to his Hitchhiker book(s).

There is much more in this book than simply another story (or the beginning of one). The first two parts are filled with snippets, random thoughts DA wrote down about tea and cookies and computers and other stuff, interviews for various magazines and newspapers he did, as well as speeches he gave for all sorts of occasions.
For example, did you know how much Douglas Adams got involved with environmentalism? Yes, this giant (literally) of a man did not just love all things Apple, but thanks to a trip done with biologist Mark Carwardine, he also became a staunch defender of bio-diversity. Most notably, he loved and tried to protect rhinos. He even climbed the Kilimandscharo in a rhino costume in order to raise money for "Save the Rhino" (a wildlife conservation organisation). Here he is:

Naturally, it was much more of an ordeal than he had originally thought, which he explains in his very unique hilarious way (seriously, I almost suffocated when reading his account of that trip).

My favourite story though is of the cookies. Here it is:

This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person is me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I’d gotten the time of the train wrong. I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. I went and sat at a table. I want you to picture the scene. It’s very important that you get this very clear in your mind. Here’s the table, newspaper, cup of coffee, packet of cookies. There’s a guy sitting opposite me, perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit, carrying a briefcase. It didn’t look like he was going to do anything weird. What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.

Now this, I have to say, is the sort of thing the British are very bad at dealing with. There’s nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies. You know what would happen if this had been South Central Los Angeles. There would have very quickly been gunfire, helicopters coming in, CNN, you know… But in the end, I did what any red-blooded Englishman would do: I ignored it. And I stared at the newspaper, took a sip of coffee, tried to do a clue in the newspaper, couldn’t do anything, and thought, "What am I going to do?"

In the end I thought "Nothing for it, I’ll just have to go for it.", and I tried very hard not to notice the fact that the packet was already mysteriously opened. I took out a cookie for myself. I thought, "That settled him." But it hadn’t because a moment or two later he did it again. He took another cookie. Having not mentioned it the first time, it was somehow even harder to raise the subject the second time around. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice…” I mean, it doesn’t really work.

We went through the whole packet like this. When I say the whole packet, I mean there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime. He took one, I took one, he took one, I took one. Finally, when we got to the end, he stood up and walked away. Well, we exchanged meaningful looks, then he walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back.

A moment or two later the train was coming in, so I tossed back the rest of my coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and underneath the newspaper were my cookies.

The thing I like particularly about this story is the sensation that somewhere in England there has been wandering around for the last quarter-century a perfectly ordinary guy who’s had the same exact story, only he doesn’t have the punch line.

Typically British. And, strangely, or not so strangely because it's typical DA, a perfect anecdote about life.

This book, therefore, grants a unique insight into the author's mind, his anxiety that sometimes bordered on depression, his early years and struggle, the sudden fame and success, the maddening battle with Hollywood, his private life even.
And it shows how beloved and respected he was by family, friends and colleagues. I mean, Stephen Fry penned the Foreword and Richard Dawkins the Epilogue! Just the list of people he knew and often also how he got to know them is staggering.

Alas, this is the end. So to speak. Fortunately, I can look forward to reading the 4 other Hitchhiker volumes as I haven't read those yet. It's amazing what kind of a legacy this man left behind (not just through his books, but also radio programmes, BBC contributions, movies, TV shows etc).

Trigger Warning:
This book is sometimes difficult to read; at least to those people who mourn the author, or generally feel for people who have to cope with sudden loss. It sure made me cry at certain points.

While reading this, I've had one thought running in my head the whole way through: I wish I could've met Douglas Adams.
Whether he's telling about the time he walked around Africa in a rhino suit for charity, teaching Americans how to make a proper cup of tea or giving a speech about the possibility of an artificial God, Adams was able to make almost anything a pleasure to read. A wonderful insight into the mind of a man I'll never get to meet.
I'm only taking off points here because the unfinished version of the third Dirk Gently novel given here didn't quite work, but then again Adams knew that too. Shame we never got to see how this project would have ended up.
So long Douglas Adams, and thanks for all the fish.

This posthumously published piece of Douglas Adams' canon is cobbled together from letters, emails, and unfinished writings. From a memoir piece about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro dressed as a rhino, to suggestions for improvements to technology, and a draft of the third Dirk Gently book. Salmon of Doubt is both sweet and sad.

Sarebbero 4.5 ⭐ come sempre questo libro ti fa riflettere e divertire, anche se con quella punta di amaro finale.
Penso sia una raccolta necessaria e che sia un'ottima, anche se triste, conclusione.

A collection of Adams writings, both fiction and nonfiction. It was interesting reading these at the same time as Green's essay collection, in that I found some similar flaws (I wonder if they are flaws in essay in general). Overall, I enjoyed some of them, especially the tragically unfinished Dirk Gently book. Others interested me less or disappointed me. Mostly glad I read it though.

A lovely summation of Douglas Adams, his life and his way of thinking. Unique and brilliant <3

Am recitit cartea cu multă bucurie - la fel de interesanta ca la prima întâlnire!

If you miss the friendly, exacting voice of Douglas Adams, I recommend this posthumously published last visit to the familiar retreat of his silly metaphors, triple negatives, and delightful humor. This is a compilation of essays, interviews, letters, lectures, and fiction, which covers everything from swimming with manta rays to running with dogs; atheism, religion, and quantum mechanics ("There is one particular model of the universe that has turtles all the way down, but here we have gods all the way up"); the lyrics to "Do-Re-Mi"; the Beatles; to what kind of martinis he enjoyed, and how to properly brew a cup of tea. There is an interview with American Atheists magazine in which he seems baffled as to why Americans care who is atheist. (Q: "What message would you like to send to your Atheist fans?" A: "Hello! How are you?") There is an introduction he wrote to a tenth anniversary edition of The Original Hitchhiker Scripts that begins, "I do enjoy having these little chats at the front of books. This is a complete lie, in fact." ("It is very unfair to be asked to write an introduction to a book which contains an absolutely brilliant introduction written on the very subject of introductions to books," writes Stephen Fry in the foreword.)

It was inside the eerie, orange light of a sandstorm that I read him lecture about the "four ages of sand" to describe how we explore and discover our universe: From sand, we make glass, to make telescopes, and then microscopes, and then the silicon chip, and finally fiber optics in the information age. He wrote a great deal in the nineties about what would happen next in the technology world, including an opinion piece in the UK debut issue of Wired Magazine in 1995 (included within). From a hotel bathtub, ca. 1996, he wrote a relatively lengthy article using a Psion palmtop. "I have never written anything in the bath before," he wrote. "Paper gets damp and steamy, pens won't write upside down, typewriters hurt your tummy, and if you are prepared to use a PowerBook in the bath, then I assume that it isn't your own PowerBook."

Adams recommends a couple of his own favorite books. Reminder to myself to read Man on Earth by John Reader and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins.

The last third of the book is unfinished material he was writing for a third Dirk Gently novel. As you might have guessed, it's entertaining and well crafted, and it will hurt your heart a little, as you realize just how good it would have been if it were finished -- not to mention the letdown of an incomplete mystery novel where nothing is resolved and the author took its secrets with him.

In the epilogue, Richard Dawkins writes, "Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender (he once climbed Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit to raise money to fight the cretinous trade in rhino horn), Apple Computers has lost its most eloquent apologist. And I have lost an irreplaceable intellectual companion and one of the kindest and funniest men I ever met."

I liked the Dirk Gently story and some of the correspondence was as charming as your would expect from Adams. The pop-science and pop-atheism stuff in the middle was a bit boring and unsophisticated to me though.

Certainly a gem for all Douglas Adams fans, containing a collection of articles, speeches and short stories with a broad topic ranging from such as hiking up Kilimanjaro in a rhino-suit to how computers' keybords will look in the future. If you're familiar with Douglas's writing style, you'll recognise that he uses similar techniques when writing both long novels and short chronicles. The book is an opportunity to not only enjoy the writers ideas one last time, but also to get to know the person behind those ideas better.

The beggining of what was supposed to become a new Dirk-Gently book doesn't dissapoint, and it lures you in to a world of hollistic complexity, only in the way that Douglas Adams can.
My personal opinion is that the book is a casual read. Because it consists of unrelated material, it's easy to get into any page at any time and there's no need to rush the read.

Another sidenote is that the book can be enjoyed by readers who are not familiar with Douglas Adams or his work. It can be a good way of getting to know the author and his writing style, but, of course, the book is most appealing to Douglas Adams fans who appreciate his character and know a thing or two about the guy.

Not really a book but an entertaining collection of ramblings by someone who’s ramblings are well.. quite entertaining
-Stephen Fry probably said this

So far I've only read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but I do intend to read the other four books of the trilogy. Then, when I was scanning through articles and stories by and about DNA (= Douglas Noel Adams), I came across this collection of essays, interviews, speeches and the partly written "The Salmon of Doubt". I think it's a great idea that those remaining snippets on DNA's computer have been put together as a sort of memoire.
I have laughed so hard my stomach still hurts and it was a real joy! So get your towels ready ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 - 42! ;-D