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A Trilogy in Four Parts

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Per Anhalter Durch Die Galaxis

bro really did make the mice the superior species

blue

what a chapter (chap 28)...So turns out the earth is a computer, it made me chuckle

"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."! "But it was the Great Question! The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything!" howled Loonquawl. "Yes," said Deep Thought with the air of one who suffers fools gladly, "but what actually is it?"

i think it's great that the big question and the name of the trilogy are the same

"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.

"Forty two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together, this dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox—the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan), Zaphod’s girlfriend, whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he’s bought over the years. Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? For all the answers, stick your thumb to the stars! Praise for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “A whimsical oddyssey . . . Characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy.”—Publishers Weekly “Irresistable!”—The Boston Globe

Robby

Irreverent, absurd, brilliant, and just so much fun to read.

it's the subtle humor that i really like about this book

He gestured Arthur towards a chair which looked as if it had been made out of the ribcage of a stegosaurus.

"It was made out of the ribcage of a stegosaurus," explained the old man as he pottered about fishing bits of wire out from under tottering piles of paper and drawing instruments.

what makes it funny is the fact that there is no correlation between the 2

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now

this is so random, still made me chuckle!

Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet. And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more. This is a complete record of its thought from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it. 

Ah …! What’s happening? it thought. Er, excuse me, who am I? Hello? Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Calm down, get a grip now … oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It’s a sort of … yawning, tingling sensation in my … my …well, I suppose I’d better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let’s call it my stomach. Good. Ooooh, it’s getting quite strong. And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I’m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that … wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do … perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I’ve found out what it’s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What’s this thing? This … let’s call it a tail—yeah, tail. Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good, can’t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn’t seem to achieve very much but I’ll probably find out what it’s for later on. Now, have I built up any coherent picture of things yet? No. Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I’m quite dizzy with anticipation … Or is it the wind? There really is a lot of that now, isn’t there? And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming toward me very fast? Very, very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like … ow … ound … round … ground! That’s it! That’s a good name—ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me? And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

It was of course more or less at this moment that one of the crew sustained a nasty bruise to the upper arm. This should be emphasized because, as has already been revealed, they escape otherwise completely unharmed and the deadly nuclear missiles do not eventually hit the ship. The safety of the crew is absolutely assured.

i'm going to eventually come back for a 2nd reread (3rd read) later for the humor of the author

“It is most gratifying, “ it said, “that your enthusiasm for our planet continues unabated, and so we would like to assure you that the guided missiles currently converging with your ship are part of a special service we extend to all of our most enthusiastic clients, and the fully armed nuclear warheads are of course merely a courtesy detail. We look forward to your custom in future lives.… Thank you.” The voice snapped off.

“Shhh!” said Zaphod. “There’s absolutely nothing to be worried about.” “Then why’s everyone so tense?” “They’re just interested!” shouted Zaphod.

i love the ridiculousness and uniqueness of this book

Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not be in any way exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance. The planet in question is in fact the legendary Magrathea. The deadly missile attack shortly to be launched by an ancient automatic defense system will result merely in the breakage of three coffee cups and a mouse cage, the bruising of somebody’s upper arm, and the untimely creation and sudden demise of a bowl of petunias and an innocent sperm whale. In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning whose upper arm sustains the bruise. This fact may safely be made the subject of suspense since it is of no significance whatsoever.

it's kinda brilliant tbh, still annoying though

One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn’t be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn’t understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so—but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence the act. He preferred people to be puzzled rather than contemptuous. This above all appeared to Trillian to be genuinely stupid, but she could no longer be bothered to argue about it.

“I’ve just thought of something,” she said. “Yeah? Worth interrupting a news bulletin about me for?” “You hear enough about yourself as it is.” “I’m very insecure. We know that.” “Can we drop your ego for a moment? This is important.” “If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.” Zaphod glared at her again, then laughed.

“Sorry, did I say something wrong?” said Marvin, dragging himself on regardless. “Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway so I don’t know why I bother to say it, oh God, I’m so depressed. Here’s another of those self-satisfied doors. Life! Don’t talk to me about life.” “No one even mentioned it,” muttered Arthur irritably.

“Zaphod,” she said patiently, “they were floating unprotected in open space … you wouldn’t want them to have died, would you?” “Well, you know … no. Not as such, but …” “Not as such? Not die as such? But?” Trillian cocked her head on one side. “A second later and they would have been dead.” “Yeah, so if you’d taken the trouble to think about the problem a bit longer it would have gone away.” “You’d have been happy to let them die?” “Well, you know, not happy as such, but …”

In this collection of novels, Arthur Dent is introduced to the galaxy at large when he is rescued by an alien friend seconds before Earth's destruction, and embarks on a series of amazing adventures with his new companion.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

the telephone cleaners weren't so useless were they huh?

Brooke Barnett

virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.

There was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine.

Almost the exact same thing that happened in Chapter 1 with Arthur's house happened in Chapter 3 with Earth! LOL!

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

Bethany Jenkins

“But that's not the point!" raged Ford. “The point is that I am now a perfectly safe penguin, and my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs!" 

“It’s all right, I've got them back now," said Arthur.

This planet has-or rather had-a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

Chaïmae

“That ship hated me,” he said dejectedly, indicating the policecraft.

“That ship?” said Ford in sudden excitement. “What happened to it? Do you know?”

“It hated me because I talked to it.”

“You talked to it?” exclaimed Ford. “What do you mean you talked to it?”

“Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it,” said Marvin.

“Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course, but I’d far rather be happy than right any day.”

“No. That’s where it all falls down, of course.”

“Pity,” said Arthur with sympathy. “It sounded like quite a good life-style otherwise.”

“Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now.”

“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.”

it's all over the place, but that's its charm. The humor added up too. 

Shreya Punj

Sigh. 
I’ve had a physical copy of this book on my shelves since 2012. I tried to read it but it never stuck. 

This year, I bought the audiobook for it’s been narrated by Stephen Fry and at least managed to finish listening to the whole thing; and I feel nothing but sweet sweet relief at this ordeal being over. 

Maybe I’m the fourth smartest creature on the planet and thus too dense to understand Adams’ work. Maybe the mice make fun of me…I don’t care. Perhaps it’s the fact that forget intergalactic space travel, I haven’t stepped outside my house in a long time… I could not ‘get’ this book or the humour. 

My favourite character is Marvin for he knew the pandemic was coming. Marvin knew. I wish he’d told me the point of wasting almost six hours on this.

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years. 

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!
--back cover

Beatriz Aguiar

funny & thought-provoking

it is definitely british comedy <3

Fabio Bracht

Le stravaganti vicende di Arthur Dent e Ford Prefect, surreali e irriverenti viaggiatori delle Galassie sempre alle prese con avventure che hanno per scenario l'intero universo.

Guida galattica per gli autostoppisti

Carlotta

Avevo visto il film e non mi aveva convinto, il libro conferma la mia impressione.
Tante trovate divertenti, tante digressioni che, diciamocelo, ad un certo punto stufano ma soprattutto non sono di nessuna utilità alla storia. Anzi, ne esce proprio sommersa da una serie di cose che si potevano raccontare in due righe. Personaggi che spariscono, cosa che succedono così, perché sì. Il tutto giustificato con 'ma siamo nello spazio e, si sa, gli alieni sono strani.' Arthur che dovrebbe essere il personaggio principale finisce per essere uno spettatore e basta. 
Niente, non mi ha convinto. O magari non l'ho capito.

Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect learn why Earth has been shunned by the rest of the galaxy as they journey through space and time.

Life, the Universe and Everything

Ryan LaFerney

I hate to admit this but this series is just not that great. The first book is brilliant, the second is entertain, and well, I have to wonder if Adams was running out of steam when he wrote this. He is working with uninspired ideas and his inability to write characters as anything but vehicles for punchlines and guttural confusions is trying to say the least.
There's just not much of a point of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy being a series other than each entry is a weaker form of satire than the last.

Oh, well. At least Martin Freeman's narration made this somewhat enjoyable. I'd say just read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and stop there.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series written by the one and only Douglas Adams. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams' radio series of the same name. It is perhaps one of the most beloved British science-fiction books of all time, one that combines humor with absurd but often acute observations on issues of materialism, the nature of existence, and the role of bureaucracy. You probably know the plot of its somewhat meandering story of Arthur Dent and Ford Perfect, the famous space wayfarers of the series. 

In any incarnation, the Guide follows a befuddled and homeless earthling named Arthur Dent as he tries to navigate a universe filled with hyperintelligent but depressed androids, sentient mattresses, multiple dimensions, extremely bad customer service, mice trying to steal human brains to figure out the ultimate question that will explain the meaning of life the universe and everything, and so on and so forth. It's wacky, brilliant, and often, as all satire does, sheds light on the human condition: mainly how we can be so naive and futile. 

The series is beloved and, for all its absurdity, predicted several bits of modern technology with spooky prescience. The Guide the series is named after sounds a lot like Wikipedia. The Babel Fish software that translates foreign websites for you is named after a species of fish that Adams created to help travelers of space translate alien languages. 

The book is even insightful into the nature and intersection of celebrity and politics . Adams doesn't muck about with how Beeblebrox became president (and he only stays president long enough to steal a spaceship), but the impression is that everyone was shocked by the whole affair, not least Zaphod. Still it was and is a way to feed his hippie ego. "I freewheel a lot. I get an idea to do something, and, hey, why not, I do it. I reckon I'll become President of the Galaxy, and it just happens, it's easy," he says at one point. "It's like having a Galacticredit card which keeps on working though you never send off the checks." Sounds a bit like Donald Trump and numerous other politicians if you ask me.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a classic. If you haven't read it, give it a shot. It's not everyone cup of tea but if you love British humor, Science Fiction, satire, inspired lunacy, etc. you might just love it. Best enjoyed while drinking a pint of beer and clutching a towel. 

remember: DON'T PANIC.

This was one of the most hilarious and creative books I’ve ever read. It’s super quick and fun and worth the hype. 

Nicole Sonja

This was such a funny book. I loved the humor and the strangeness of this galaxy! Definitely recommend it.

Anna

Alyssa 

really weird...2nd time reading it, but i had 2 read it for school. i guess i just didn't get the weird humor. everything was so random.

Kevin Ramsay

Very funny, if you appreciate British humour. Douglas Adams' tongue was lodged quite firmly in his cheek throughout the series and I image he paused his writing from time to time to have a good chuckle - as I have done while reading.

Amani Zaha

The genre? Wacky science fiction.

The cast? A local radio man whose house was demolished the same day the world ended; a researcher temporarily residing on Earth while gathering material for the revised edition of the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy; the two-headed president of the Galaxy, currently on the run; a former resident of Earth, who said president wooed at a dinner party once; and a depressed, genius robot called Marvin.

This is the kind of book where, after just one page, you'll know whether or not this is for you. The delightfulness of HHGG is in part owed to its comedic characters and crazy plot (which simultaneously is ridiculous and makes all the sense in the world), but probably even more so to its deadpan narration, which is why I think it will be immediately obvious to a reader whether they will enjoy this book. Take the following bit, on the very first page:

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, a terribly stupid catastrophe occurred, and the idea was lost forever.

This is not her story.

Or other, seemingly random occurrences and facts of the universe that the narrator finds interesting, such as the final thoughts of a sperm whale that suddenly finds itself in outer space.

This is just a really fun, exciting book. I adored the characters and their dynamics, and this book is just crammed with funny one-liners and passages. This is mostly why I wanted to write a review - to post some of my favourites. 


The Vogon guard dragged them on.

"Don't you worry," said Ford, "I'll think of something." He didn't sound hopeful.

"Resistance is useless!" bellowed the guard.

"Just don't say things like that," stammered Ford. "How can anyone maintain a positive mental attitude if you're saying things like that?"


I mean??? I'm crying a bit


“You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."

"Why, what did she tell you?"

"I don't know, I didn't listen.”



He gestured Arthur toward a chair which looked as if it had been made out of the rib cage of a stegosaurus.

"It was made out of the rib cage of a stegosaurus," explained the old man [...].



The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases.

For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat? the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch?


5/5 if not for the fact that it ended so abruptly and I wanted much more of this ridiculous group. :(

Aditi

Raised on a planet at the remote edge of the universe, the daughter of Arthur Dent sets out on a transgalactic quest to find the planet of her ancestors

Mostly Harmless

A bit choppy, the finish was a bit of a bummer, but still interesting :)

Neil Murray

Quick, easy, fun and enjoyable! I would have given it 5 stars if I hadn’t started reading Enders Game before I got round to reviewing this. The latter immediately immersed me in a way that this never did. Still, I was gripped enough to read it in one sitting, I’d give it 4.5 if I could!

Hana 

Kirsten Simkiss

This is my second time reading this book. I read it once before as a child out of encouragement by my father and because there was a movie soon to be coming out starring Martin Freeman. While I enjoyed the movie and the book along side the radio show which I now have on my computer, I must say that I think I prefer the radio show out of all three mediums. However, as this is a book review, I will review this on that alone.

The trials and tribulations of Arthur Dent are nothing short of ridiculous. While this is my second time reading through it and the jokes that I read years ago still stuck in my mind as I read it again, I found I still enjoyed the humor. Of course, I knew what was coming, having devoured the content in several forms of media, but it was still a good refresher. This is definitely not a book to approach as a serious example of science fiction literature. It’s definitely more of a comedy.

That being said, this book is also an iconic science fiction work and must be commended for it’s memorable aspects of the strange universe that it created. Babel fish, for instance, are a ridiculous work of art.

I would definitely recommend this book to you if you’re a fan of British comedies.

Pow! Freeeeoooooo! Pop! Pop Pop! Previous Best Score...Seven million five hundred and ninety-five thousand, two hundred and...

Now join the end-of-the-world party, bring your pink towel and your jogging shoes and find out if potatoes are the answer.

Life, the Universe and Everything

Join Arthur Dent, earthling, "jerk," kneebiter and time-traveler; sexy space cadet Trillian; mad alien Ford Prefect; unflappable Slatifbartfast; two-headed, three-armed, ex-head Honcho of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox...you'll learn to fly.

Is it the end? Or just the beginning, again.

--back cover

Life, The Universe and Everything is a thoroughly bizarre book. I mean, looking back at the last two books, they were pretty strange too, considering, but this one is just plain weird. Not in a bad way, I guess, since it still manages to keep up the same humorous pace, but this one is definitely out of left field. Or off the cricket field, I guess, since most of the plot revolves around the planet of Krikkit and the xenophobic race that dwells on that particular planet. Is it as funny as the first two? Probably not, but it's still good. Granted, I've been reading them back to back to finish off my collection of them for reviewing purposes, so that may be clouding my humor filters a bit.

I did rather enjoy Trillian's character development. She was always the most grounded character, aside from perhaps Marvin. It was nice for her to get that spot of limelight there.

It's definitely not my favorite book in the series, but it isn't a bad edition. You definitely should read the first two books before reading this one or several things will make even less sense than they originally did - and they were weird when they were explained the first time.

This is definitely my least favorite of the books and I feel that this was a weird ending to the series. While there are some laughs and the characters are decent, it completely undoes Arthur's happy ever after at the end of the last full book. Remarkably, Zaphod is absent from this entire book. It just... it isn't the best episode in the series. Only Arthur Dent could make a career as a gift from God to a community where his sole purpose is to be a maker of sandwiches.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

This is a collective review for the series, as opposed to the individual books. To see my reviews for the individual books, please refer to those.

The overall story starts strong, kind of loses the overall plot in the middle, and then ends pretty unremarkably. That being said, the unusual quirkiness of the series has a brilliance all it's own. I would say that if you're going to read the series, skip the last book. Seriously, it's not worth it. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the series. I loved the humor and the absolute randomness. Arthur Dent is far from the most interesting protagonist, but his utter panic at his life is truly what seems to be the most fascinating thing about him.

An easy and short read! It did get chuckles out of me.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy A Trilogy in Four Parts

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