The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)

This book is great, and it was in wonderful shape. There were no real scrapes or dings on the cover, and no torn pages. It's an older copy, but that's fine-it still reads just like a newer one would. As for the story, well, it's FANTASTIC! Any sci-fi reader should definitely invest in this product.

I picked this up remembering the BBC series from my youth, and was pleasantly surprised to find (a rare thing) it every bit as funny as I remembered. I actually found myself laughing out loud at times. The last book in the series is the weakest, but all in all still a wonderful collection.

I'm an old school Douglas Adams fan. If you haven't read his work you should. Especially if you love satire and irony. That being said I think all the other review here do the book justice.

As for this product, the book itself is good quality, faux leather bound, bigger than a Bible and at times thick and clumsy feeling. Laying in bed and reading this will take some will power compared to your average paperback because of the size of the thing. This is no small "toss in the 'ol briefcase" tome here. It's big. The pages are thin and can tear easily but are of pretty good quality. There were some smudges here and there and some faint print in other areas but hey, there's a lot of pages in there so perfection shouldn't be expected at this price.

Overall a great value.

We follow the seemingly random and hilarious misadventures of the hapless Earthling, Arthur Dent, & his alien sidekick, Ford Prefect, as they 'hitchhike' around the Universe after Earth is destroyed in order to make way for an interstellar highway.

Even without all the philosophical, scientific & religious commentary (Adams was a fan of science and a vocal atheist) it is just a finely told piece of imaginative writing because of Adam's ability to communicate so eloquently & humorously many things we ourselves think & feel, but can't or don't vocalize (his understated British delivery is incomparable). And there are many moments where you will giggle in the warmth of kindred spirits or just burst out laughing at the ridiculous predicament of the lovably raucous characters.

Adams seamlessly weaves together a story that explores science, the mystery and purpose of life, religious faith, love, death & the Universe itself, while keeping you thinking and laughing to the very end. It is a classic because there is simply nothing else like it in terms of content and delivery, largely because there is no other writer like Doug Adams.

I recommend this for just about anyone who is willing to laugh at everyone (and everything), including himself.

It is amazing that a show that started as a radio show on BBC 4 around the late seventies has become such a classic of sci-fi literature.

The Hitchhiker consists of five books: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So long, and Thanks for all the Fish, and Young Zaphoid Plays it safe.

The original book is the crown jewel of the collection, and stands the test of time as one of the most original and brilliant novels written in the twentieth century.

Arthur Dent wakes up one day to a crowd of bulldozers who are going to destroy his house to make way for a freeway. Unbeknown to Arthur, the Earth itself was being destroyed by the Vogons for development of a hyperspatial express route through the star system.

Luckily for Arthur, his friend Ford Prefect is an alien who possessed a copy of the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy and they were able to escape Earth seconds before it was destroyed. Thus start the adventures of these two, and many other characters--Marvin, the Paranoid Android, Zyphod Beeblebros, the ex Galactic President, Slartibartfast who was trying to explain the answer given to the answer of the question of our purpose in life, who are we? (The answer after a seven and a half million year wait was given bu a computer as the "number 42").

More than the plot following our heroes Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect (and a cast of thousands), it is Adams' amazing ability to turn a phrase into something not totally unlike any other book. The book is not only brilliantly conceived, but glitters with a patina of dark humor which is utterly unique in literature, the only analog being the television and film productions of Monty Python.

The book sequence uses the author's knowledge of sci-fi to talk about the things that concerned him, the world he observed, his thoughts on Life, the Universe, and Everything. Using the Guide as a point of reference, we are exposed to people who thought that digital watches were a pretty neat thing, and Adams, with a curiosity for scientific things and an instinct for explanation, uses his laser-sharp sense of British humor, to explain, and to describe the most incredible journey though time and space.

The compilation of the five books are long (815 pages) filled with dry British humor, and hard to read simply because after the second book I started to see a bit of monotony creep into Adams' writing style, occasionally to the point that it almost seemed that he was forcibly imitating himself.

For those of you who have trouble sleeping, I highly recommend this book--it will put you to sleep every time you read it. Nevertheless, the Guide is, and will always be, one of the classics of the English language.