The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The whimsy and humor of this book make it an easy choice to round out an otherwise serious list! An engrossing story lurks behind the comedy, which is no doubt why this book has transcended generations and cultures to persist as a worldwide fan favorite.

The truth is that we have no idea what humanity’s first encounter with aliens will look like, even if Arthur Dent’s experience with the bureaucratic Vogons is a little more tongue-in-cheek than those in our more “serious” picks.

It’s a strange confession to make, but after my formative reading of this book, I can’t help but feel there’s something mystical about the number ‘forty-two.’ As you remember, ‘forty-two’ is the computer Deep Thought’s answer to the question, "What’s it all about, life, the universe, and everything?".

It fits Adams’ skepticism that this baffling ultimate answer sends everyone back to rethinking what the ultimate question might be. It’s questions, not answers, that count here.

Adams simply makes me laugh, or rather complexly makes me laugh. Depressive Marvin, the paranoid android, with his "brain the size of a planet"; the… show more.

In my experience, long-form humor writing often loses its whammy before the finish line. It becomes tired or repetitive. Satire as well: cynicism can curdle when presented at length.

But not this book and its many sequels (a trilogy of five, says the author). This is a delirious, Monty Pythonesque satire of all things bureaucratic, philosophical – even sci-fi itself. Example: At the end of Chapter 3 of this first volume, Earth is destroyed by the Vogons, government flunkies of an alien species (and the universe’s worst poets) to make way for a hyperspace expressway.

My friends and I would… show more.

It was already a cult classic when I heard of it, and as a college student it was a must read.

The humour is weird, the science even weirder, and it has everything I enjoy in a science fiction story. Aliens? Check. Space travel? Check. Spaceships? Check. A restaurant at the end of the universe? What? Shouldn’t every sci-fi story have one? Well, probably not.

This is the first of four books in this trilogy. No, that’s not an error. That’s what it says on the book.

Hitchhiker began life as a BBC Radio series. And a lot of credit should go to Douglas’s writing partner, John Lloyd. After ten months on the scripts, Douglas knew that he needed help. He and John got the last two scripts done in two weeks.

John went on to become our generation’s leading comedy producer (Not the Nine O’clock News; Blackadder; Spitting Image; QI; The Museum of Curiosity). So, if you love the Hitchhiker books — who doesn’t? — give yourself the treat of listening to the original radio series. As the old saying goes, the pictures are better… show more.

The Hitchhiker series showed me how “way out” a novel could go.

As a comedian, I loved discovering that novels don’t have to be dry, dreary, and humorless. You know, like Congress. I’ve been accused of having an imagination and Douglas Adams’ books took my imagination and made it do tricks and backflips.

I recommend THGTTG because it is “...something almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea.”

It is also a book that teaches me how to write, and how to be funny, and how I can go at describing something in many ways, not just through stupid old simile or musty-fusty metaphor. I can tell you what it is not.

I can discuss in minute detail the least important thing by way of making you realize that there is no most important thing, and we're all just hapless fools for love and the illusion that we have some control over life, the… show more.

If aliens came to earth, what would they think is the dominant species on the planet?

In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, with his character Ford Prefect, an alien who arrived on earth and picked a name intended to blend in, Douglas Adams casually suggested they make the mistake of thinking cars were. Is that so unreasonable?

After all, the entire planet seems to be built around serving their needs. Adams also features a bunch of callous, stupid bureaucrats casually destroying the whole of earth to build a hyperspace bypass.

I must have read this entire series a dozen… show more.

I read this book in the 7th grade. I immediately took it to school and read favorite passages aloud to any of my friends that would listen. I just thought the use of language was so clever, as was the way Adams introduces characters and situations in surrealistic fashion. There is a lot of the humor that went way over my middle school-aged head, but what landed was hilarious. I would eventually come to crave books that had more plot and grounded stories; but I have always loved Adams’ writing style. 

Too often, sci-fi and fantasy are so very serious. Like, mega-serious. And that is fine. But, off-beat and funny are good too. Hitchhiker’s is a funny book in a sci-fi setting. But I enjoy adding a touch of whimsy to an otherwise serious tale. If it isn’t done well, it can take you out of the setting and flow. I like to balance edge, action, and drama with interspersed humour at appropriate times. Would I want all the fantasy I consume to have these elements? No. Does the odd fantasy story with humour in it act as a palate cleanser?… show more.