The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adamspublished
September 27th 1995
(first published 1979)
by Del Rey
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binding
Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
isbn
0345391802
(isbn13: 9780345391803)
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Read in January, 1988
recommends it for:
Douglas Adams fans
In my experience, readers either love Adams' books or quickly put them down. I, for example, quite literally worship the words Adams puts on the page, and have read the Hitchhiker's Trilogy so many times that I have large tracts of it memorized. But both my wife and father couldn't get past book one: the former because she found it too silly, and the latter because he found the writing to be more about "the author's personality" than plot and character.
Whatever.
The first three...more
Whatever.
The first three...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Everyone 10 and up, sci fi lovers, people who enjoy comedy
If you would like to read about planets being blown up, space ships being stolen, chronically depressed robots, and Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, this book is for you. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is about a man named Arthur Dent. He is a very average Englishman whose house is going to be demolished for a highway bypass. As Arthur lies in front of the bulldozers, his friend Ford Prefect, an out-of-work actor, comes to take him to the pub while the construction manager lies in f...more
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I received this audio book as a gift from a coworker; she had acquired it for (she says) a quarter at a flea market. Whatever the monetary value, however, this book is a little piece of history to me. It is perhaps the most tangible connection I will ever have to the BBC radio series of h2g2.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as narrated by Stephen Moore is a wholly different experience than any other edition of Hitchhiker's. Of course, this is true of every edition of h2g...more
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as narrated by Stephen Moore is a wholly different experience than any other edition of Hitchhiker's. Of course, this is true of every edition of h2g...more
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Read in January, 1980
I read this book loooong ago, but it made a big impact on me then that I am still glad for.
The beginning of the story is that the earth is going to be destroyed by aliens - not for evil purposes of power and dominion, but to make way for a bypass. The earth is just in the way. Mild-mannered everyman, Arthur Dent is also losing his home to demolition for a bypass in England in the same indifferent manner and would be destroyed along with earth but for the intervention of his friend Ford Pre...more
The beginning of the story is that the earth is going to be destroyed by aliens - not for evil purposes of power and dominion, but to make way for a bypass. The earth is just in the way. Mild-mannered everyman, Arthur Dent is also losing his home to demolition for a bypass in England in the same indifferent manner and would be destroyed along with earth but for the intervention of his friend Ford Pre...more
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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, I borrowed Hitch Hikers from the library and changed my outlook on reading forever. At school they told us what and when to read and as a consequence I’d never read anything except for ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’, then they sent us home to revise for our ‘O’ levels and I needed a silent occupation to keep ...more
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Probably, I've lowered my star rating because I expected much more from this book. I've heard the title bandied about by fans of sci-fi for ages, but when I finally picked it up, expecting something clever and quirky like Bruce Coville's My Teacher is an Alien series, I found instead a funny premise, ruined in the execution by a lot of unfunny jokes.
Many of the 'funny' parts of this story read like a stand-up comedy routine. I didn't understand the reasoning behind this choice until ...more
Many of the 'funny' parts of this story read like a stand-up comedy routine. I didn't understand the reasoning behind this choice until ...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Mary by:
Everyone
I was quite afraid I wouldn't take to the book considering how many people close to me -- as well as at parties -- would rage, rage, RAGE at my never having read Hitchhiker's Guide. What would the fallout be? Would I be shanked at the next party I went to if, when asked about my liking of the book, I were to shrug? Oh, the anxiety!
But I'm happy to report I did like it.
A lot, too, once the sperm whale and petunia chapter came up, and then all the more when the old world builder (...more
But I'm happy to report I did like it.
A lot, too, once the sperm whale and petunia chapter came up, and then all the more when the old world builder (...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
all sci-fi fans
DON'T PANIC.
Those are the words inscribed in large friendly characters on the cover of the most useful book for hitchhikers in the galaxy, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". No Earth man ever read such book, no company even published it. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable book.
Wow, this novel might be the wackiest novel I've ever read. Imagine this: You're having a bad day because your house is going to be knocked down by bulldozers for the sake of a bypass. Suddenly, your e...more
Those are the words inscribed in large friendly characters on the cover of the most useful book for hitchhikers in the galaxy, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". No Earth man ever read such book, no company even published it. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable book.
Wow, this novel might be the wackiest novel I've ever read. Imagine this: You're having a bad day because your house is going to be knocked down by bulldozers for the sake of a bypass. Suddenly, your e...more
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Read in March, 2004
recommends it for:
Everyone who has even the shadow of a sense of humor.
Don't Panic
If ever there was more helpful a phrase in the history of all that is written, that phrase should be terminated. "Don't Panic" should be reason enough to give this book a five star rating, but since you're probably not going to read it solely on that bit of information alone I will be forced to expound on the subject. (And I'm not quite so happy about that)
Douglas Adams presents us with Arthur Dent, your proverbial "every man". This makes Arthur Dent very...more
If ever there was more helpful a phrase in the history of all that is written, that phrase should be terminated. "Don't Panic" should be reason enough to give this book a five star rating, but since you're probably not going to read it solely on that bit of information alone I will be forced to expound on the subject. (And I'm not quite so happy about that)
Douglas Adams presents us with Arthur Dent, your proverbial "every man". This makes Arthur Dent very...more
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Read in October, 1994
recommends it for:
Humor readers, sci fi readers, people in need of a laugh
Douglas Adams' adaptation of his own BBC radio series was a smash hit, and remains one of my favorite novels. Where long introductions were unusual on radio, here they could be extended to whole chapters for his own amusement, and always to the same amusement in his readers. He also added a lot of new wordplay and literary nuance, which led many to mistake this for the original work and the radio show to be the spinoff. But from the destruction of a house, to the destruction of the earth, to the...more
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3 comments
recommends it for:
anyone in sci-fi,philosophy,comedy,or dolphins
Please ignore the movie. Also, please ignore the BBC miniseries. The problem here is that these books cannot be made into films. The genius that was Douglas Adams was not his imagery. Sometimes it wasn't even his plot. But it was always his clever way of arranging words on a page. What other author has ever described something as hanging in the air the same way that bricks don't?
For those of you who have not read this series of books, I will warn you that you must start here. This b...more
For those of you who have not read this series of books, I will warn you that you must start here. This b...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommended to Candy by:
Ryanrecommends it for: Everyone!
Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Copyright date: 1979
Publisher: Pan
How many pages: 220 pgs
How long it took me to read: 5 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: Seeing the movie when it came out.
This book was purchased at: McNeely and Robinson
This book is: awesome and hilarious
Other books by these authors: The Restaurant at the end of the universe, Life the universe and everything, So long and thanks for all the fish and Mostly ha...more
Author: Douglas Adams
Copyright date: 1979
Publisher: Pan
How many pages: 220 pgs
How long it took me to read: 5 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: Seeing the movie when it came out.
This book was purchased at: McNeely and Robinson
This book is: awesome and hilarious
Other books by these authors: The Restaurant at the end of the universe, Life the universe and everything, So long and thanks for all the fish and Mostly ha...more
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The movie did not do this book justice, but I knew that it never would be able to. This is a book that you simply cannot appreciate without reading and savoring every word, sentence, and paragraph in and of itself.
This is one of those books that are not loved for the author's talent with words (though he does have that) or the way the book pulls on your heart. Rather, there are simply moments of sheer brilliance in this book that just cause you to sit back and admire the incredible twist...more
This is one of those books that are not loved for the author's talent with words (though he does have that) or the way the book pulls on your heart. Rather, there are simply moments of sheer brilliance in this book that just cause you to sit back and admire the incredible twist...more
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Read in August, 2008
First, a review from the Encyclopedia Galactica:
Having heard ...more
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979, D Adams), a mostly harmless work of science fiction whose humor falls flatter than a sperm whale dropped from the stratosphere, whose plot (what little of it there is) numbs the skull quicker than a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, and whose dialog is more agonizing even than a Vogon poetry reading.... a few thoughts of my own
Having heard ...more
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Read in June, 2001
Downloaded from Audible.com
I read the paper version of this book when it was first published, and enjoyed reliving it as an audiobook.
Narrator: Stephen Fry
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2005
Length: 5 hours and 51 min.
Publisher's Summary
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 15 years, ...more
I read the paper version of this book when it was first published, and enjoyed reliving it as an audiobook.
Narrator: Stephen Fry
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2005
Length: 5 hours and 51 min.
Publisher's Summary
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 15 years, ...more
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Of course this one is a re-read, but it was so very long ago that I'd forgotten large pieces of this very small book.
What a fun book!
It certainly is timely to reread with the movie being made and all. But it's not the kind of book that you really want to spend a lot of time talking about afterwards. It seems to me that the delight of the book lies in the individual experience of reading it and "getting" the jokes, allusions, parallelisms, and just plain outrageousness of it. This ...more
What a fun book!
It certainly is timely to reread with the movie being made and all. But it's not the kind of book that you really want to spend a lot of time talking about afterwards. It seems to me that the delight of the book lies in the individual experience of reading it and "getting" the jokes, allusions, parallelisms, and just plain outrageousness of it. This ...more
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Read in March, 2007
Mostly harmless. That’s the entirety of the entry for Earth in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Of course, it hardly matters now, since Earth was destroyed half an hour ago to make way for a hyperspace express route. Now Arthur Dent is stuck on a stolen spaceship with the two-headed, three-armed President of the Universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the girl he stole from right under Arthur’s nose. Arthur Dent is having a very bad day—and that’s even before he has to deal with the ...more
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Read in July, 1988
Great book. Unfortunately, I've read it so many times that I have become bored of it! My disappointment in the movie version of the book probably has tarnished my enjoyment of the book. I can't get the silly characters that I saw on the screen out of my head. And the jokes that once seemed funny, underground, and eccentric, now seem hac