My Reading Experiment (Books #15, #16, #17, #18, #19) - The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Target: 100 books
Current: 19 books
Don't you dare judge me! The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy IS a collection of five books. It's not fair to ask me to count it as one huge book. In fact, I think I deserve some credit here. I did not count Young Zaphod Plays it Safe as a separate book. I figured it was too short a short story to do so.
#15, #16, #17, #18, #19
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2) The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3) Life, the Universe and Everything
4) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Short Story) Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
5) Mostly Harmless
- Douglas Adams
Liked it, Science fiction, humorous, English, Aliens
I'll admit it - this genre is not for me. I knew that I wouldn't be picking up very many books like these in the future, and so I decided to give this one my all. I cruised through all five books with relative ease, and what's more, I think I even genuinely enjoyed it! It's frustratingly hilarious. The books have truckloads of that peculiar thing that is English humor. I kept turning pages, one after the other, in the hope that everything would make sense in the end. And did it? Well.......I'm not saint enough to just tell you. What I have realized is that the Hitchhiker series is all about the journey. You get to zip across the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash, sometimes with Arthur Dent, and at other times with Ford Prefect, the alien journalist from Betelgeuse with a fondness for Earth. You also get to meet and hang out with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and Marvin, the depressed as hell android. And a bunch of other strange characters. You come across the most beautiful ideas, the most logical ideas, the most fantastic ideas, and the most preposterous ideas, all within the space of a few pages. I think the book might have driven me a little crazy. Before you know it, you're in this roller coaster going forward and backward in time, riding the infinite improbability drive, cruising past distances several light years long, and holding on for dear life. I didn't think I'd make it through, but then, I couldn't resist. The whole thing was so wonderfully silly, that I had to know where it all went. And I found myself unable to stop reading. The books are a complete and utter laugh riot, but I'll still stick with what I said earlier - that I don't think this is my genre, but I cannot promise that I'll never come back for a re-read. And before you can ask me, yes, t'is true. T'is true that the answer to everything is indeed 42. Go figure!
I'm having a really hard time coming up with a quote from the books. There are several gems. Even if you don't read the books, do Google quotes from the series. It would make for a fun-filled evening. I'll leave you with this little excerpt explaining the importance of the Towel, a hitchhiker's most prized possession, apart from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy of course.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."
Current: 19 books
Don't you dare judge me! The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy IS a collection of five books. It's not fair to ask me to count it as one huge book. In fact, I think I deserve some credit here. I did not count Young Zaphod Plays it Safe as a separate book. I figured it was too short a short story to do so.
#15, #16, #17, #18, #19
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2) The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3) Life, the Universe and Everything
4) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Short Story) Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
5) Mostly Harmless
- Douglas Adams
Liked it, Science fiction, humorous, English, Aliens
I'll admit it - this genre is not for me. I knew that I wouldn't be picking up very many books like these in the future, and so I decided to give this one my all. I cruised through all five books with relative ease, and what's more, I think I even genuinely enjoyed it! It's frustratingly hilarious. The books have truckloads of that peculiar thing that is English humor. I kept turning pages, one after the other, in the hope that everything would make sense in the end. And did it? Well.......I'm not saint enough to just tell you. What I have realized is that the Hitchhiker series is all about the journey. You get to zip across the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash, sometimes with Arthur Dent, and at other times with Ford Prefect, the alien journalist from Betelgeuse with a fondness for Earth. You also get to meet and hang out with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and Marvin, the depressed as hell android. And a bunch of other strange characters. You come across the most beautiful ideas, the most logical ideas, the most fantastic ideas, and the most preposterous ideas, all within the space of a few pages. I think the book might have driven me a little crazy. Before you know it, you're in this roller coaster going forward and backward in time, riding the infinite improbability drive, cruising past distances several light years long, and holding on for dear life. I didn't think I'd make it through, but then, I couldn't resist. The whole thing was so wonderfully silly, that I had to know where it all went. And I found myself unable to stop reading. The books are a complete and utter laugh riot, but I'll still stick with what I said earlier - that I don't think this is my genre, but I cannot promise that I'll never come back for a re-read. And before you can ask me, yes, t'is true. T'is true that the answer to everything is indeed 42. Go figure!
I'm having a really hard time coming up with a quote from the books. There are several gems. Even if you don't read the books, do Google quotes from the series. It would make for a fun-filled evening. I'll leave you with this little excerpt explaining the importance of the Towel, a hitchhiker's most prized possession, apart from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy of course.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."
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