Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
By: Douglas Adams
Copyright: 1979
Portland House

4 Bookmarks out of 5

It was brought to my attention from my sister that in my blog I review a lot of serious books. I guess that is true because serious books are usually ones that make me think the most. Especially since I am now out of undergrad, I want books that will continue to make me think and make use of my analysis skills. But, seeing as how not all of my readers are likely to be serious all of the time, I decided to take it upon myself to review Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have a giant all-encompassing book that contains all the books in the series, but this post is honestly just about the first one. I've read this book probably two times before (and I've also seen the movie) but it honestly never ceases to make me laugh.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction book that is also a laugh-out-loud comedy. The book is centered around this book known in short-hand as the Guide. Ford Prefect, one of the main characters, is an alien who is a researcher for the book. Ford wanders the galaxy in order to make sure that the Guide is up to date. Unfortunately for Ford, he ends up stuck on Earth and becomes friends with Arthur Dent. This turns out to be a stroke of luck for Arthur because Ford saves him from the certain destruction of Earth. Earth, by the way, was destroyed to make room for a inter-galactic superhighway. The rest of the book ensues with what the two encounter, including meeting up with Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian who happened to have stolen a highly advanced ship known as the Heart of Gold. On the ship is a wonderful character known as Marvin, who is an ultra-depressed robot.

For those of you who are not normally science-fiction fans, I would recommend making a special exception for this book. While the book does center around being in space, the humor is enough to make you forget it. While never being over-bearing with the space theme, Adams manages to make fun of the science fiction genre itself. Nothing is off limits in Adams' tough humor, including God himself. Now, I should warn you that Adams is a British author with a distinct sense of humor. If you don't usually like British humor, you might find it a bit more dull but still entertaining nonetheless. Adams relies on dialogue between characters to build some situational humor and I often find it more hilarious if you read it out loud. Adams, when it's necessary, does describe some bits about the universe. It's enough to make the reader understand what is going on, but enough to leave you confused as much as Arthur Dent is confused about his new course of life.

This is a short and easy read, to be quite honest. The reason I wouldn't give it 5 out of 5 Bookmarks is because sometimes it takes me a few readings to get everything that happened in a certain passage. It's obvious to me that Adams intended Hitchhiker's Guide to be an audio form of entertainment rather than a written one. However, the reader can move through the book quite easily and it's quite possibly one of the biggest classics in science fiction. After all, it's the only book that tells us that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42.