Technically, this isn’t the first time I’ve read this book. My parents, odd ducks that they are, played the audiobook of this for all of us to listen to when I was about 6 or 7. I can’t remember it, of course, but it did feel generally familiar and comforting. Probably because of this early exposure (and many subsequent years of being steeped in a similar sense of humour).
This is the odd and fanciful story of an extraordinarily ordinary man named Arthur Dent. We enter the story on the worst day of his life. He woke up on a perfectly normal day, only to discover a whole demolition crew outside setting up to tear down his house to make way for a motorway bypass. But that’s not the weird part. That was still to come. Just as he’s settling into the mud in a valiant display of determination to save his (very) humble abode, his friend Ford Prefect rushes up to him and whisks him off down the pub to fill him in on… well, an entire universe of information of which he was previously unaware. It turns out that it’s not just his house that’s about to be demolished – it’s his whole planet.
Luckily Ford manages to hitchhike their way aboard an alien spacecraft just in time, and they’re off on the beginning of a whirlwind adventure full of inexplicable and improbable things.
I very much enjoyed the humour and just plain craziness of this book. Nothing really makes sense, and yet because nothing makes sense, it all sort of does in its own weird way. It’s a helluva lot of fun, particularly as read by Stephen Fry who can narrate the pants off anything. It’ll particularly appeal to anyone with a British (i.e. dark and irreverent) sense of humour and appreciation for the absurd.
I will say that if you’ve seen the film, it doesn’t stray too far from the book. This is normally a fantastic thing, but it does mean that there won’t be much in the way of surprises! That said, I enjoyed the film every bit as much as the book, so I do recommend both of them.
I’m somewhat curious to continue with the series, as I enjoyed the writing and general zaniness of the reading experience and would like to find out what happens beyond this piece of it. If I do get around to it, I’ll report back! In the meantime I’d love to hear from you guys. Have you read this? Have you seen the film? Both? And if so, which did you prefer? Do the subsequent books hold up?
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! – Goodreads
Book Title: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Series: Yes – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Random House Audio (Audible – Narrated by Stephen Fry)
Released: October 12, 1979 (April 28, 2005)
Genre: Science Fiction, Humour, Space
Pages: 203 (print edition)
Date Read: February 15-18, 2022
Rating: 7/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.22/5 (1,620,424 ratings)