The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker’s Guide Series #1)

After recommendations from many different people, I have finally read and finished The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I must say, the recommendations were correct. It was indeed an excellent read, and the next one should prove to be just as good. Which is next on my list 🙂

For those of you that don’t know, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy follows the two main characters Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Arthur is from Earth, and Ford is from a planet called Betelgeuse, and has been stranded on Earth for 15 years. He’s a hitchhiker doing research for the book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. We find the both of them on Earth, right before it’s about to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. The Vogons, who are demolishing Earth, apparently don’t care that much about all of the humans living there, and are describing as very, very ugly aliens. Anyway, Ford saves Arthur by taking him off Earth right at the last minute, and now their hitchhikers exploring the Universe. It’s a really fun story, with lots of fun explanations about things.

One of my favorite things about the book was the little side facts that Adams added to the book. One of my favorites was about the intelligence of beings on Earth. The book says that even though humans think they’re the second most intelligent (I’m not sure what we’re supposed to think is the first….but dolphins are mentioned, so we can go with that), they’re really the third. Dolphins are second, but what do you think is first? I guess you’ll just have to read the book and find out 🙂

I also enjoyed the excerpts that were inserted from the “real” Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, especially the one about the towel. The Guide says that a towel is the most important tool that a hitchhiker can have when traveling the universe. And they give lots of good reasons, my favorite being that you can trick non-hitchhikers to give you things if you pretend that all you remembered to bring was a towel. I never thought of it that way, and it’s quite interesting.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. The next book that I will be reading is The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, the sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m hoping this one will be just as exciting.

Have a book that you want me to read? Leave it in the comments 🙂