The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

[Marnie]

[Denise]

This was one of my favorite reads when i was in high school and early college. References to this book come up in conversation a lot. I know that 42 is very important, and i carry my towel with me, just in case.

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺]

I read this book last year for the first time and it was just too absurd for my taste. I do think the "42" bit was funny though.

[Roseanne]

I have always wanted to read this. I even own a copy. I just never get to it.

[MJD]

Here is a question for those that have read the series:

What do you consider to be the more satisfying conclusion to the series, book 4 or book 5?

I'm on the book 4 camp myself.

[Kirsten]

Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺ wrote: "I read this book last year for the first time and it was just too absurd for my taste. I do think the "42" bit was funny though."

Perhaps you don't enjoy Brit humor.

[Nyla]

I re-read the entire series last fall/winter, and I still love it. But I do understand that it might not be everyone's cup of "almost but not quite entirely unlike tea." Part of it might be the British humor, but I also think that Douglas Adams was just so delightfully quirky in his own right. Not everyone appreciates so much quirkiness! That's okay.
As for the 4th and 5th book in the "increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy," I personally enjoyed So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish more than I enjoyed Mostly Harmless.

[Heather]

I loved this series so much. I was living in England at the time, so I was deep in British humor-land. I guess what made it especially good to me was I found the science to be interesting in addition to the books being funny.

By the way, there's an American author with a very similar style who you should check out - Robert Scheckley. The book I read was Dimension of Miracles.

[Kim]

MJD wrote: "Here is a question for those that have read the series:

What do you consider to be the more satisfying conclusion to the series, book 4 or book 5?

I'm on the book 4 camp myself."

I believe it was 4 for me as well. I have not read the entire series in a while, but 5 jumped the rails and was trying too hard to be silly. Before it had been a balanced kind of silly.

[Heather]

Nyla wrote: "I re-read the entire series last fall/winter, and I still love it. But I do understand that it might not be everyone's cup of "almost but not quite entirely unlike tea." Part of it might be the Bri..."

"So Long" was my favorite too! If you're okay with silly, I also love the Red Dwarf books.

[NancyJ, Moderator]

I just read that the author was inspired by Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut. Has anyone read them both?

[Joy, Your Obedient Servant]

NancyJ wrote: "I just read that the author was inspired by Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut. Has anyone read them both?"

I have. And I could see it, although I much prefer Hitchhiker's. They're both extensive journeys through space with so odd happenings along the way. I feel like Sirens is a lot more preachy.

[Heather]

I have read both and I can see some similarities but I think only in the absurdity aspect. I feel like the biggest difference is that they very obviously are from different cultural viewpoints. I can't recall any humorous British book that has spoofing of military (although several tv shows did that I watched).

[Atlanta]

J. wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I just read that the author was inspired by Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut. Has anyone read them both?"

I have. And I could see it, although I much prefer Hitchhiker's. They're both ex..."

I finished the sirens of titan yesterday and bought the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy for audible today. I read it once as a teen, but I don't really remember it.