The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | Review
I remember reading this book when I was about 14 years old and loving it. I recently just re read it, and I can safely say, I still do. If you've seen the movie, then you'll know the story line, but in case you haven't, it's about a man called Arthur Dent and his adventures in space, pretty much.
Arthur lives in England and is shaken one day by the fact that they want to bulldoze his house to make way for a bypass. Ironically, his friend Ford Prefect comes to his rescue and beams them up to a space ship which is there to destroy the Earth to create a galactic freeway. Aboard the space ship, Arthur learns that Ford isn't actually from Earth, but from near Betelgeuse and has in his possession The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In their adventures in space, Arthur and Ford are captured by Vogons, thrown off a ship into deep space, rescued accidentally by passers by who happen to be the President of the galaxy and the only other Earthman/lady in space, Trillian. The four of them, and a depressed robot called Marvin, travel through space getting up to various things, and discovering that the meaning of life, the universe and everything... is 42.
Sounds crazy, but you'll just have to read it.
I love how this book is written. While in third person, the narration is such that the story line is often interrupted with only-sometimes-relevant information from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or from the speaker of the novel himself. It's a lot of fun, and the characters are all slightly mad (all except Arthur, of course, who just wishes he were back home with a cup of tea), and while it's a short read, it's unexpected and utterly ridiculous. If you want a quick, entertaining, no-brains-needed read, this is it!
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