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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $25.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I am surprised there are negative reviews
Review: I would rate this as one of the funniest books I have ever read. It to me was clearly way up there along with Wodehouse. The comedy of Douglas Adams is difficult to categorise as satire or pun. It has satire and puns, however i think his books do more. Douglas Adams makes you laugh using parts of brain whose existance you may not even have been aware of previously. Reading this book was to me like getting hooked on to some strange device which would trigger those areas of brain responsible for laughing which the other books and movies have missed. The ridiculousness of some of the ideas in this book and (most of the) series is unbelievable. The humour can be a bit nerdy and I guess hard to understand. However all in all it is a must read.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Overrated
Review: This book is very very funny, I will give it that much. It had me laughing out loud almost the entire way through. Adams has a very droll, dry sense of humor, and a great feel for the outlandish. But I was expecting so much more from this book than merely bringing the funny. It was on one 100 Greatest Books of the 20th Century list. The story is OK, but nothing groundbreaking, aliens and earthlings adventuring through space. And as for climax...this book ends so suddenly, I wasn't even sure what the whole point was. Nothing was tied up or remedied. Characters didn't change or evolve, more than a few questions went completely unanswered. I guess this book is part of a series. It's best feature...it's short, so I didn't waste much time, and now I can say I've read it, for whatever that's worth. I am sure there is some great sociological theme somewhere in this book, but I can't be bothered.

3 stars for the laugh factor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What can I say?
Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the late Douglas Adams is perhaps one of the most indescribable books that I've come across in my readings. Douglas Adams in decidedly brilliant. His droll wit and sense of humor will definitely put a smile on your face.
The story is somewhat complex. Without giving much away, human Arthur Dent is rescued from Earth just minutes before it's destruction by his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from somewhere in the area of Betelgeuse VI. Arthur and Ford (after some very funny encounters) come across Zaphod Beeblebrox (the two headed, three armed President of the Galaxy) and Trillian (aka Trisha McMillian, Zaphod's human girlfriend and a girl who Arthur had tried to pick her up at a party on Earth) and Marvin, a manically depressed robot.

Adams' humor is more of the ironic sort then the laugh out loud type. Adams will give you a seemingly random excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the encyclopedia which, in the novel, is a central component) or a very detailed description of the thoughts of, say, a potted plant, which has seemingly no relevance to the story. But never fear, Adams brings everything together in an exciting and funny climax to the first novel of his increasingly inaccurately named series.

From an analytical standpoint, the novel is a satire on the sterotypical british character - dull, complacent, emotionless. Arthur Dent can be classified as any of those. His only true emotional outbreaks come when his life is endanger (which it quite often is). The reader will enjoy watching Arthur's character grow and change. Fortunately, his character does not change too much over the course of the novel (his character is still the well-meaning but accident prone, unemotional hero that you will come to know and love).

Again though, it's hard to describe The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As is said in the book, space is big. Like really big. Like really really mind boggingly big. It's like so big that it's just unimaginable. And so is Douglas Adams novel.

I would like to take this moment to thank Douglas Adams for his work and to say "God rest his soul." We will miss you.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Confusion
Review: "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"

By Douglas Adams

Published by Pocket Books

Copyrighted 1979

?Confusion?

"A towel, it says, is the most massively useful thing
an intersteller hitchhicker can have" If you thought
that was confusing, then this book will be just
that..... confusing.

I'm not much of a reader in the first place, but I
read this book about half way through and I didn't
understand it that much. It had a lot of confusing
catches to the story.

I wouldn't recommend this book to the average fifteen
year old kid like me, but if your a fan of Starwars of
Startreck this is the kind of book for you. So to sum
it up I would only recommend it to those who like
science fiction.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must-Read Sci-Fi Comedy Classic
Review: The planet Earth is destroyed by an evil alien race called the Vogons in order to make way for a hyperspacial bypass. Fortunately, one bewildered Earthman named Arthur Dent is rescued from the Earth's destruction at the last possible moment by his friend Ford Prefect, who turns out to be an alien from the planet Betelgeuse. They stow away on a Vogon freighter, and are eventually rescued by the whacked-out Zaphod Beeblebrox & his Earthwoman companion, Trillian, in their absolutely fantastic ship, the Heart Of Gold. From here on out, it's outrageous shenanigans in space, as Arthur and friends discover what the true purpose of the planet Earth was for, that it's always important to know where your towel is, and that the answer to Life, The Universe & Everything is "forty-two".... It began life as a BBC radio play, and then it spun off into something much bigger, including comedy albums, a TV miniseries, and, of course, the books. "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy," by the late, absolutely great Douglas Adams, is a true comedy classic of the literary world, and is a must-read for all fans of not only science fiction, but off-the-wall British comedy, which Adams gleefully, and cleverly, blends into one. I first read the books as a young teenager some twenty odd years ago, and, re-reading them now, they still make me laugh just as uproariously as they did back then. This book, Part One in the "Hitchhiker's" saga (five books in all), gets things off to a flying start, with many great, hilarious chapters & characters, not only Arthur, Ford, Zaphod & Trillian but also Marvin the paranoid android, and the old wise man, Slartibartfast. Douglas Adams was a comic genius, gifted with a tremendously clever wit & sharp writing style, which he worked to maximum effect with the "Hitchhiker's" books. His wonderful observations & short stories sprinkled throughout about Life in the Universe are also a great treat to read. There's more intergalactic misadventures for Arthur & the gang in Book Two, "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe," but "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" is a marvelous opening book to this legendary sci-fi comedy saga. It is extremely funny, extremely clever, and extremely classic. God bless you, Douglas Adams, wherever you are.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Reader's Guide to the Best Book in the Galaxy
Review: One would believe that Earth is a normal planet in a normal otherwise insignificant solar system along with other normal planets with no normal intelligent life. However, Arthur Dent is about to learn much more about Life, the Universe, and Everything than any other Earthling ever will. This is mostly because his planet is soon blown up, his best friend happens to be an alien named Ford Prefect, and he has been living on a planet that was really the most intelligent super computer ever created and was run by mice. Although Arthur gets past the fact that he almost dies on two occasions and has a fish living in his ear, he never gets past the fact that he has no idea what is going to happen next. He and his friend then become "hitchhikers" and get picked up by a criminal named Zaphod Beeblebrox, who just happens to be Ford's cousin. After all of these incredibly bizarre and improbable things happen, Arthur learns his destiny as part of the genius super computer called the "Earth" that was created to find the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. But will he be able to escape the cops, whale and flower missiles, and mad mice that want the Question more than a run on the exercise wheel?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious
Review: I have read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and I thought it was hilarious. The Guide uses a genius blend of comedy and action to create a great flow of a story. Douglas Adams uses many large and complicated words so the reader has to figure out what these funny words say. When Earth is destroyed, the two friends Ford and Arthur must hitchhike throught the galaxy. The story follows these two friends and the hardships thay endure in there journey through the galaxy. I liked this book was very good and I recomend it for all who love a good laugh.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: uggh
Review: The book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a very good book. It describes many things in life. Some are adventure, and excitement. It describes four friends and how they survive in the galaxy.

After Earth is destroyed to become an intergalactic highway, Arthur Dent, and Ford Prefect make their way into the galaxy. They meet up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's childhood friend, and Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend. The four enter an abandoned planet. On the planet they encounter many hardships, and they must use all of their wits if they want to survive

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Review: The book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a book that I believe the reader will enjoy thoroughly. Douglas Adams wrote this book and it contains a sense humor that only Douglas Adams could bring. The humor in this book is somewhat random, yet is highly entertaining. The book has a somewhat hidden plot, but I believe that the theme is: "What if it were like this?" But even though an ironic book it is, it still keeps the reader turning the pages until it's finished. If you like this book, then read all of the books in the series, except the third one. I did not enjoy the third one as many people have, but found its humor old and boring. But I can tell you now The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of my favorite books.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and BEYOND!!
Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I got this book a few weeks ago from my school library and finished the book in about a fortnight around all my school work and playing football, that just shows you how much I loved this book. Douglas Adams is a great author and I want to read more of his books. In the book you go around the Galaxy with Ford Prefect, an alien in human form, and Arthur Dent, a human man and Ford's good Friend. In the book Ford and Arthur are picked up and dropped from ship to ship around the galaxy onto planets they thought were uninhabited! They have to hope ships pick them up before their time is up floating in space before they die after 30 seconds of space. This book is amazing. It is full of suspense, laughter, and joy. I recommend this book to every one who likes Douglas Adams' books.


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