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Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Gollancz)

By Douglas Adams

(694)

| Hardcover | 9780575074842

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Book Description

One Thursday lunchtime Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this is already more than he can cope with. Sadly, however, the weekend has only just begun. And the Galaxy is a very, very largeContinue

37 Reviews

8 people find this helpful

Absolutely hilarious. On rushing through it the first time, I thought it was just nah-nah. But its jokes started creeping into my daily conversation and often times reduced me to saying absurdly incoherent things (like "42, it's 42!") giggling uncontrollably in front of other people.

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s tsui said on Sep 23, 2005 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | 1 feedback

6 people find this helpful

THE book!
absurdly, unbelievably, terrifically funny.
it made me laugh my head off, and afterwards i found it is a source of infinite wisdom ;-)
douglas adams was a guy who really knew where his towel was.
and, it is just the beginning.

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Federico said on Jul 16, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

In between the hangover-inducing-oversleep of the Chinese New Year holidays, I also managed to kickstart my ambition to read the full H2G2 series (which is a 5-book-trilogy now) by reading the first one - The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. This is the second time I'm reading it, having attempted ... (continue)

In between the hangover-inducing-oversleep of the Chinese New Year holidays, I also managed to kickstart my ambition to read the full H2G2 series (which is a 5-book-trilogy now) by reading the first one - The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. This is the second time I'm reading it, having attempted something similar a few years back which had stopped after The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe (the second one). As the book starts off, human Arthur Dent is rescued by his alien friend Ford Prefect just before Earth is destroyed by Vogons to make way for an interstellar expressway. Ford turns out to be an author for the H2G2 which is like a Lonely Planet for the Galaxy. They hitch a ride on the Heart Of Gold, a spaceship stolen by Ford's semicousin Zaphod Beeblebrox. Also on the ship are the eternally depressed robot Marvin and Arthur's love interest Trillian. By the end of the book, the reader discovers the answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything and also the secret of what Earth was — a computer to figure out the Ultimate Question for which the answer (42) is known!
The book is a short, light and zany read. I was really able to appreciate the sci-fi humour better this time around. (Watching the movie recently helped too.) As you read along you will notice loads of terms and quotes which have entered our daily life from this book. It is easy to see that Douglas Adams must've just patched on the story as and when he got ideas without building a coherent base. That's not actually a problem since H2H2 never asks to be taken seriously. If sarcasm is your kind of humour, it's hard to not like this book.

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Ashwin Nanjappa said on Jun 4, 2007 | Add your feedback

geniale, assurdo, satirico... cosa volere di più?

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Stefano Radin said on Jun 4, 2012 about the eBook edition | Add your feedback

Genius - love it!!

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Sarah Haworth said on Apr 7, 2012 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Amazing Read

1) I absolutely loved the writing style and sense of humor that the author has. The sarcasm and ridiculousness of the dialog and action is so unique and entertaining.
2) Very little, the only minor thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of was the British nationality of the main character. Only because t ... (continue)

1) I absolutely loved the writing style and sense of humor that the author has. The sarcasm and ridiculousness of the dialog and action is so unique and entertaining.
2) Very little, the only minor thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of was the British nationality of the main character. Only because this can make his dialog a little weird at time, but this is lost in comparison to the complete absurdity of the dialog to begin with that it isn’t really an issue.
3) One connection I made was the building of the bypass through his house. A few years ago a new bypass was constructed around Flippin, AR, near where I live, and the construction, while not through my house, did make many people unhappy because of the loss of property. My second connection was to the Vogon bureaucrats. Their mindless and infuriating adherence to the red tape reminded me of the DMV, while trying to get my driver’s license in California. My last connection was to Marvin the chronically depressed robot, because who doesn’t want a hyper intelligent robot to solve all of society’s problem and do their homework, like post book reviews online.
4) One possible way I might use this in my classroom would be to offer it as one of many choices of science fiction books for my students to read and identify instances where the book diverges from what is known to be possible within the confines of current science. What scientific leaps does the book take and why would they not work in real life?

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Aarondickinson said on Dec 6, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback