Staff Pick
Intelligent, philosophical, witty, charming, and laugh-out-loud funny. Douglas Adams's conversational style of writing makes this strange journey an absolute joy to read. This is my favorite book of all time, and "Don't Panic" is tattooed on my arm in large, friendly letters as a permanent reminder of this most important lesson from the most important book in the galaxy — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! This is a book everyone should read, and is in fact on our list of 25 Books to Read Before You Die (and most deservedly so). Arthur Dent's reluctant trip across space and time continues to be essential reading for all — not just sci-fi fans — 42 years after its publication. Recommended By Joseph P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
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!
Review
"Irresistable!" The Boston Globe
Review
"A whimsical odyssey...Characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes, and his travels afford a wild satire of present institutions." Chicago Tribune
Review
"Very simply, the book is one of the funniest SF spoofs ever written, with hyperbolic ideas folding in on themselves." School Library Journal
Review
"As parody, it's marvelous: It contains just about every science fiction cliche you can think of. As humor, it's, well, hysterical." School Library Journal
Review
"Adams is one of those rare treasures: an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has reading." The Arizona Daily Star
About the Author
Douglas Adams created all the various and contradictory manifestations of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: radio, novels, TV computer game, stage adaptation, comic book, bath towel and major movie. He lectured and broadcast around the world and was a patron of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Save the Rhino International.
He was born in Cambridge and lived with his wife and daughter in Santa Barbara, California, where he died suddenly on 11 May 2001.