[Mystery Book] Ë The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, #1) PDF by Douglas Adams ✓ eBook or Kindle ePUB free
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! The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
I am not one of those who think this is the best book ever written. It does not affect me on any deep emotional level and this kind of quirky sci-fi comedy is just not really my thing. However, that being said, Adams' has some of the best quotes EVER (not all of these are from this exact book):
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so muchâ€"the wheel, New York, wars and so onâ€"whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than manâ€"for precisely the same reasons.
The Guide says there is an art to flying, said Ford, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, #1) Absurdity at its finest.
Arthur Dent is having a bad day, his house is about to be levelled down because it’s in the way of the construction of a new freeway. At the local pub, he encounters his enigmatic friend Ford Prefect. Prefect, a galactic hitchhiker, is leaving the Earth, and taking Dent with him. A minor nuisance; apparently the Earth is just about to be demolished to make way for an interstellar freeway. Dent’s realization is instant, several billions of people are going to have a very bad day.
This is the most ridiculously funny book I’ve ever read. Although that may be because it was my very first of the kind. I think the hype is very well deserved, if you are into that kind of humor. I lost track of how many times it made me laugh, and I’m not really an easy person to make laugh. Outrageously silly sci-fi humor in every single chapter. An unforgettable ride through an absurdity of worlds scattered along the vast craziness of an unfathomable galaxy.
The movie (2005) is a mediocre adaptation at best; even with a stellar cast like Rockwell, Deschanel and Malkovich. It’s not nearly as funny as the book, not by a long shot, at least for me. It doesn’t make it justice and is not exactly faithful to the original work. And sadly, you just can’t bring down the magnificently complex absurdity of Douglas writing to cinematic dialog without losing much of its original magic.
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PERSONAL NOTE:
[2007] [193p] [Humor] [Highly Recommendable] [Outrageously ridiculous] [Wonderfully crazy galaxy] [Never forget Marvin] []
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Absurdidad en su máxima expresión.
Arthur Dent tiene un mal dÃa, su casa está a punto de ser derribada porque está en el camino de la construcción de una nueva carretera. En un bar local, se encuentra con su enigmático amigo Ford Prefect. Prefect, un autoestopista galáctico, está por abandonar la Tierra, y se va llevar a Dent con él. Una pequeña molestia; al parecer la Tierra está a punto de ser demolida para darle paso a una autopista intergaláctica. La realización de Dent es instantánea, varios billones de personas van a tener un muy mal dÃa.
Este es el libro más ridÃculamente gracioso que leà jamás. Aunque eso es tal vez porque fue el primero que leà de su especie. Creo que su fama está muy bien merecida, si te atrae ése tipo de humor. Perdà la cuenta de cuántas veces me hizo reir, y no soy una persona realmente fácil de hacer reir. Atrozmente tonto humor de ciencia ficción en cada capÃtulo. Un inolvidable paseo a través de una absurdidad de mundos esparcidos a lo largo de la vasta locura de una insondable galaxia.
La pelÃcula (2005) es una mediocre adaptación cuando mucho; incluso con un elenco estrella como Rockwell, Deschanel y Malkovich. No es ni de cerca tan graciosa como el libro, ni por asomo, al menos para mÃ. No le hace justicia y no es exactamente fiel a la obra original. Y tristemente, no podés traer la magnÃficamente compleja absurdidad de la escritura de Douglas a diálogo cinematográfico sin perder mucha de su magia original.
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NOTA PERSONAL:
[2007] [193p] [Humor] [Altamente Recomendable] [Atrozmente ridÃculo] [Maravillosamente alocada galaxia] [Nunca olvidar Marvin] []
----------------------------------------------- English Another classic. If you don't like this series, you probably put your babel fish in the wrong hole. You are the reason that human beings are only the third most intelligent species on earth behind mice and dolphins. So long, and thanks for all the fish! 216 The universe is a joke.
Even before I was shown the meaning of life in a dream at 17 (then promptly forgot it because I thought I smelled pancakes), I knew this to be true--and yet, I have always felt a need to search for the truth, that nebulous, ill-treated creature. Adams has always been, to me, to be a welcome companion in that journey.
Between the search for meaning and the recognition that it's all a joke in poor taste lies Douglas Adams, and, luckily for us, he doesn't seem to mind if you lie there with him. He's a tall guy, but he'll make room.
For all his crazed unpredictability, Adams is a powerful rationalist. His humor comes from his attempts to really think through all the things we take for granted. It turns out it takes little more than a moment's questioning to burst our preconceptions at the seams, yet rarely does this stop us from treating the most ludicrous things as if they were perfectly reasonable.
It is no surprise that famed atheist Richard Dawkins found a friend and ally in Adams. What is surprising is that people often fail to see the rather consistent and reasonable philosophy laid out by Adams' quips and absurdities. His approach is much more personable (and less embittered) than Dawkins', which is why I think of Adams as a better face for rational materialism (which is a polite was of saying 'atheism').
Reading his books, it's not hard to see that Dawkins is tired of arguing with uninformed idiots who can't even recognize when a point has actually been made. Adams' humanism, however, stretched much further than the contention between those who believe, and those who don't.
We see it from his protagonists, who are not elitist intellectuals--they're not even especially bright--but damn it, they're trying. By showing a universe that makes no sense and having his characters constantly question it, Adams is subtly hinting that this is the natural human state, and the fact that we laugh and sympathize shows that it must be true.
It's all a joke, it's all ridiculous. The absurdists might find this depressing, but they're just a bunch of narcissists, anyhow. Demanding the world make sense and give you purpose is rather self centered when it already contains toasted paninis, attractive people in bathing suits, and Euler's Identity. I say let's sit down at the bar with the rabbi, the priest, and the frog and try to get a song going. Or at least recognize that it's okay to laugh at ourselves now and again. It's not the end of the world.
It's just is a joke, but some of us are in on it. English In my experience, readers either love Adams' books or quickly put them down. I, for example, quite literally worship the words Adams puts on the page, and have read the Hitchhiker's Trilogy so many times that I have large tracts of it memorized. But both my wife and father couldn't get past book one: the former because she found it too silly, and the latter because he found the writing to be more about the author's personality than plot and character.
Whatever.
The first three books in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, the Universe and Everything--are inspired lunacy. The ideas, plots, puns, jokes, and phrases that fill their pages have influenced an entire generation of not only writers, but people from all fields. For instance: the Babel Fish software that translates foreign websites for you is named after a species of fish that Adams created in book one; you can find dozens of recipes online for Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters; the chess computer Deep Thought that lost two matches to Gary Kasparov in 1989 was named after a computer in book one; and seriously, who hasn't heard that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42? (For more of these, consult wikipedia.org's entry on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Cultural References.) Chances are, if you're reading these books for the first time, you'll be surprised to see how many everyday things were named after Adams' creations.
The books aren't, of course, without their problems. Adams himself admitted that the Trilogy had, and I paraphrase, a long beginning, a long conclusion, and not much in the middle (though I can't remember where I read that). He was also regularly accused of writing for the sake of cranking out one-liners. The books as a whole jump about like a manic puppy on methamphetamines, and there are at least a few jokes in there that will completely fly over the heads of any readers who lack a basic comprehension of quantum physics.
Despite this, the Hitchhiker's Trilogy remains as the single most entertaining and enjoyable series of books I've ever read--a position they've occupied for some fifteen years. Adams' wit and wisdom still baffle me in their greatness, and he remains to this day one of only two authors who can regularly, consistently make me howl with laughter (the other being Terry Pratchett). Readers beware: if the Adams bug infects you, you will have it for life. And you'll never be sorry you let it bite. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
See my video review here: https://youtu.be/hfJJDQOroho
This is a book written in 1979 which follows the story of Arthur Dent who is having a bad day because his house is about to be torn down to make way for a highway. However, he has more things to worry about because the Earth is about to be demolished to make way for the galactic highway. Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Perfect are scooped up from Earth just a second before it is wiped out. The two of them travel through the galaxy and encounter many different people along the way including a depressed robot.
The first half of the book was really funny. I was reading this with a family member, and we both were laughing out loud every couple of minutes. The second half of the book was less funny because it was more plot driven. This book won't be for everyone, because some of the humor is a bit dry. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am not sure if the jokes will really translate that well to the big screen.
Overall, it was a quick read and pretty enjoyable. However, as mentioned earlier, the pacing felt a bit off but keep in mind this book was written in the 1970's before the 8 second attention spans developed by YouTube.
2023 Reading Schedule
Jan Alice in Wonderland
Feb Notes from a Small Island
Mar Cloud Atlas
Apr On the Road
May The Color Purple
Jun Bleak House
Jul Bridget Jones’s Diary
Aug Anna Karenina
Sep The Secret History
Oct Brave New World
Nov A Confederacy of Dunces
Dec The Count of Monte Cristo
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Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta What does Kim Jong-Il, a thong-wearing mechanic and this missing link furry fellow have to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
...you owe it to yourself and your family to find out.
With the plethora of wonderful reviews already written for this book by my fellow GRs, I decided instead to provide some helpful, practical advice on why reading this book might benefit my fellow goodreaders. Therefore, as both life management tool and a safety warning, I have compiled my:
Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
.
.
Number 5: It’s a pleasant diversion to keep your mind occupied and pass the time while you are getting electrolysis to remove those areas patches blankets of unwanted hair:
…Yikes, somebody please get that man a Klondike Bar.
Number 4: The book is smart, funny, well-written and full of wonderful commentary on the human condition and clever humor:
…The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.Number 3: This gentleman DOES NOT appear in the book:
… ‘You know,’ said Arthur, ‘it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.’
‘Why, what did she tell you?’
‘I don't know, I didn't listen.’
… Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’ ‘But,’ says Man, ‘The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.’ ‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
…For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons
… ‘Ah,’ said Arthur, ‘this is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.’
Seriously, isn’t the absence of thong-boy reason enough to give this book a chance?
Number 2: North Korea's Kim Jong- il hates this book
...and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
And finally….
Number 1: Understanding the deep, nuanced meaning at the heart of this novel will help better prepare you should you ever find yourself in a situation like this:
Don’t wait until it’s too late…for yourself and your loved ones, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy today.
If through sharing the above bit of
I only did this because
3.5 stars.
Mass Market Paperback Please, before anything... DON'T PANIC.
This review is harmless, well mostly harmless.
I think that one of the things that one has to keep in mind while reading this book is that it was written in 1979. Having this important factor in perspective, it's quite astonishing the vision of Douglas Adams, the author, presenting a lot of visionary elements, starting with the very book inside the book, I mean The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, since it's presented as an electronic book. which now it's a very common way to read a lot of books now. Also, he mentioned stuff like touch-sensitive screens that yet again, it's now something introduced in our daily lives. Science-Fiction, the good science fiction is defined by being visionary in the moment to be published and a fact, years later. Just like Verne's work predicting events like space rockets and nuclear submarines.
The President of the Universe holds no real power. His sole purpose is to take attention away from where the power truly exists...
Obviously, beside the mesmering tecnology stuff that he predicted, the signature style here is his remarkable sense of humor, SMART sense of humor. In literature and pop culture in general, there were been unforgettable examples of computers like the cold HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey and the noble K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, also robots like the loyal R2-D2 from Star Wars and the logical robots from I, Robot short story collection. However, nothing of that can prepare you to the experience of meeting Eddie, the Main Computer of the Heart of Gold spaceship or Marvin, the Paranoid Android. This is one of the best traits of Douglas Adams' wit in the development of artificial intelligence. I wasn't surprised since some months ago, I read Shada by Gareth Roberts but based on the Doctor Who's unaired script written by Douglas Adams where you find another priceless example of a computer with a personality that only Adams is able to develop. You laugh and laugh with them BUT not only because they's funny but also they are truly logical as artifical intelligences in their way to react to situations. Adams' impact of how presenting artificial intelligence can be found too in another novel of Doctor Who, Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris, where the author showed how well he learned Adams' lessons.
Resistance is useless!
I believe that Douglas Adams' involvement in the production of the iconic British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who as script editor and writer of three stories, it was fated since I found remarkable similarities on the premises of both works, this novel and the TV series. Both has a peculiar fellow who stole certain machine and along with companions is travelling around. So, it wouldn't a surprise that he got some inspiration since Doctor Who was widely known since 1963 specially on its native country, England. Of course, his participation on another British TV institution like Monty Python's Flying Circus was a relevant point for Adams to explode his humoristic potential.
To boldly split infinitives that no man had split before...
It's possible that people unfamiliar with Adams' work could think that since this is a novel with comedy, they could think that it can't be a serious science-fiction book. However, the brilliance of this novel is its capacity of offering smart humor while using scientific concepts like the theory of faster-than-light objects. Even you won't be able to fight against his priceless explanation behind the UFOs' sightings.
Without spoiling anything, I think that my only reason of getting off a star in my rating of this great novel was its lacking a proper closure. I understand that this the first book in a trilogy of five books (yes, you read correctly, it wasn't a mistake) so the adventures and mysteries will continue in the second book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. However, it was quite unsettling when you are having the time of your life reading it and the book just stopped to have words. I describe it like that since I didn't feel an ending. It was indeed just like the impossibility of not finding more words in the book. What I can give to Adams is that that was quite improbable but in my opinion, quite unlikely way to just ending this book.
Certainly I want to read the rest of this great TRILOGY of FIVE books. (Yes, yet again, you read well, and it isn't a mistake)
Mass Market Paperback It's not you, it's me... well maybe it's also you.
Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. Some of the humor I liked but it was too absurd for me and it was too slow to really start.
I wish I had liked it as much as everyone else but it definitely didn't make it to my favorite books of all time list!
UPDATE: I finally figured out what was my issue with this book. There's a French movie called Rrrrrrr (similar humour to Monty Pyton) and I've had way more fun using the jokes out of context with friends than I did actually watching the movie. Recommending it was always a bit weird because it's just an okay movie but... the jokes are funny afterwards.
This summarizes exactly how I feel about this book! English A work that showed humanity its insignificance and that madness is a general, entertaining trait in the universe.
One of the greatest milestones of the rare Sci-Fi comedy hybrids, although it´s losing quality after the first 3 parts. Fantasy seems to be more prone to comedy than Sci-Fi, I don´t know why that´s the fact. I would tend to call it kind of Terry Pratchett in space, because of the unique wit, just without the stamina for so many parts. Adams dying in a fitness center of a heart attack comes in here too, although he already stopped continuing the series years before.
More sheer fun than the rest of the serious
It´s just hilarious and very clever, using different comedy tropes in space, not for science! One of these ideas one has once in a lifetime, in Adam's case mixed with talent. It´s mostly constructed by
Running gags, some sci-fi elements, and comedy characters.
Thereby, the wacky protagonists construct the laughs with slapstick, some deeper stuff, and general strangeness. The underlying criticism level isn´t very high in the first part, which can mostly be seen as pure entertainment.
So successful because it´s so easy to read
There is better, more ironic, and more complex sci-fi out there, but nothing as pleasant as Adam's work. No need to think too hard or get depressed about human nature, no info dump and worldbuilding overkills, just characters, puns, and gags mixed with some dept and
The second and third part of the series include some of the best indirect social criticism too.
But it sadly doesn´t improve after that, I´ve read until the fifth one and Adams just can´t live up to the expectations anymore, starts recycling his schemes, and just isn´t as compelling as in the original trilogy. Maybe he had already enough money, wasn´t really motivated, or lost his muse, but it´s quite a shame because there would have been potential as endless as space for more, really good parts.
Useless fandom trivia
The author, as the story goes, had the idea while watching the sky completely wasted, some might say poisoned, by Gösser beer in my home country Austria. I don´t believe this, because Stiegl beer is just much better than this bitter concoction. Whip me with a towel if you have a problem with that, I can easily handle a little intergalactic spanking.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
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