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Summary: Philosophy with a twist!
Review: If, like Douglas Adams, you happen to adamantly disbelieve in God, and if you spend your days and nights brooding on the absurdity of the universe, I suggest that you run immediately to the nearest bookstore and grab a copy of the The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy!! This book is a rarity because it talks about the nature of existence without ever being a slow or depressing read. The very opposite in fact...the Hitchhiker's Guide is a BIG FAT FARCE, a satirical and completely twisted comedy about "life, the universe and everything." I am amazed at the extent of Adam's talent...he has a flair for the insane and his entire book is a series of ridiculously whacko adventures in space...a totally nutty must-read!!
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Summary: Chapter 8 is my favorite piece of writing ever
Review: Rest of the book is pretty good too.
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Summary: A Hitchhiker's Guid to the Galaxy
Review: The best book I have read in recent memory was A HitchhikerÕs Guide to the Galaxy. I also recommend all of the other books by in this series, although I don't recall their names. The sequel to this book is called something like the restaurant at the edge of the universe or something like that. A HitchhikerÕs Guide to the Galaxy, is an extremely entertaining book. It takes place in a Galaxy that is quite different from our own. The book doesnÕt really have a clear plot but does feature hundreds of strange technologies and many different species. The book is written in a pretty random style so you never really know whatÕs going to happen or what tangent the author is going to fly off on. I recommend this book to any one and every one. Especially those who enjoy science fiction books.
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Summary: Totally ridiculous, wonderfully spontaneous...
Review: This book is definatly one of the best ever written. But the thing about it is, you have to be a certain type of reader to get this book. You have to be the type that accepts things without understanding them, and just go with the flow. A lot of people gave this book a bad review, and I am warning you now: this book makes NO sense, so if you're the type of person that needs EVERYTHING spelled out for them and EVERYTHING written in black and white, do us all a favor and forget about it! But I loved it! Where do ballpoint pens go when we lose them? Are we truly the most intelligent species on Earth? What would a bowl of petunias think if it was falling out of the sky and about to go splat? These questions and more are answered in The Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe.
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Summary: Hilarious
Review: Douglas Adams truly is the master of parody. This book is absolutely marvelous. I could not stop laughing.
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Summary: what a waste of my precious time.
Review: I was told more than hundreds of times that this book was a classic and truly funny. In the end, I was truly disappointed. In no way did i find that this book was good. It attempts to make fun of the creation of Earth, praises the "intelligent" mice and most shockingly, pokes fun at the High and Almighty God. In the end, of course, the author, Douglas Adams fails miserably...except for the part where he worships the lowly mice. In no apparent way is this "wholly remarkable book" remarkable, or even close to being satisfactory. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is an absolute failure as a satire piece, and could not have been any worse as a sci-fi novel. How do you save yourself from something that is utterly boring - and miserably disgraceful? The plot is pointless, the characters aren't developed, and the setting...the setting is just messed up. There is no theme, no meaning for this book. The book is a complete failure and should not be recommended to anyone who does not want to be scarred for life, as I was.
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Summary: The Guide
Review: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the first book in the inaccurately named hitchhiker trilogy, is a humorous story about the worst Thursday in the history of the world and the repercussions of that horrible day. But more than that, it is a story about a human being, stranded in the middle of the galaxy, on the most technologically advanced alien starship of the time, The Heart of Gold.
Arthur Dent is that human of the Heart of Gold, along with Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the ex-president of the galaxy, and the only other survivor of earth, Tricia McMillian. Nobody on the ship knows where they are headed, except for the most incompetent of them all, Zaphod. Even then, he still has no idea why he is heading there, until he subjects himself to a self administered brain scan, which reveals that there are two initials burned in to his brain, but whose are they? Meanwhile, Arthur Dent is trying to cope with the fact that his planet was blown up by a group of blood thirsty aliens to make way for a hyperspace bypass. But the biggest shocks of them all to Arthur, comes when Ford Prefect reveals that he is not from a city on the outskirts of London, as he once said, but is a field researcher for "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and is the cousin of Zaphod Beeblebrox, and that Zaphod was the person who flew off with Tricia McMillian at a party in London. Apparently it is a small UNIVERSE after all. But when The Heart of Gold reaches its destination, nobody seems to believe him that it is the legendary planet of Margarathea in which half of the wealth of the universe is supposed to be buried in the underground tunnels of the legendary planed surrounded in myth. But will an ancient defense system keep them from reaching their goal?
Everybody on the ship is there for some reason or another. For Arthur, it is the fact that him and Ford hitchhiked onto the alien ship that blew up Earth. For Ford, it is the same reason, but he is enjoying the thrill of being "on the road again" as he said it. In the case of Trillian (Tricia McMillian), it is the fact that she left the planet a few months earlier with Zaphod at the fancy dress party in London that he crashed. And finally for Zaphod, it was the mysterious orders that were what was burned in his brain to allow him to become president of the galaxy, and steal The Heart of Gold so that Zaphod can fulfill the requirements of the directions that continually pester him. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, has a very complex plot, in which every lady, gentlemen, and its, make a difference in this story. It provides a good base for the next four books, and is a very entertaining first book in a series. The series has many unique characters that may go away for a while, but always come back in a later book.
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Summary: Great book -
Review: A colleague had a line from the movie made from this book in his signature block at work. I just let it pass, not putting much thought into it. Later a friend and I were discussing books we have read, and wanted to read. He asked me if I had read the 5 books in this trilogy, and when I said no, he said I had to put that at the top of my "to do" list. I ordered the books, and when they arrived I started reading. I enjoyed every page. Douglas Adams took what we know as life, subjected it to his sense of humor, applied it to space travel and life. What resulted was one of the funniest and at times, thought provoking books I have ever read. By letting us see ourselves through Ford's eyes we can see some of the bizarre parts of our lives here on Earth. I would highly recommend this book, and the rest of the series to anyone who enjoys reading. They are sci-fi (which I don't like at all), but that is a very small part of the storyline. If you wished, you could imagine the travelers traveling from country to country on Earth, with a few minor exceptions. The next time I talk to my friend who recommended these books, I will have to thank him very gratefully.
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Summary: Imaginative Splendor
Review: The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an imaginative book that takes the reader along for a wild ride through interstellar systems to the far regions of Magrathea. Led by his friend Ford Perfect, Arthur Dent travels the galaxy, meeting many people and creatures along the way. The book is dripping with situational humor like the Earth being destroyed 5 seconds before the secret of life is to be found, as well as the often unintended sarcastic remarks from Ford Perfect, who is sent through the galaxy to revise the electronic book Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Although somewhat confusing at times, the creative imagination and description helps the reader actually envision intergalactic travel. Arthur and Ford are led through much of their adventure by The Intergalactic President Zaphod Beetlebrox on the spaceship "Heart of Gold". Zaphod is a creature with two heads and three arms, he was later described to have gained the third arm to improve his ski-boxing. This is another example of Adams' imagination and creativity. A humorous portion of the book comes when a computer says the calculated meaning of life is 42, which offers no more of an answer than anyone else's theory of the meaning of life. Along with humor, Adams uses satire to mock things like society and government. He states the Zaphod's duties as president are to take the attention away from the governments actual power. Zaphod achieves these goals by spending the first two years of his ten year term in trouble with the law. If satirical and sarcastic humor mixed with sci-fi entertainment sound appealing, The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy has exactly what you're looking for.
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Summary: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Review: I've read many books in my day, mostly for my own pleasure but never until now have I read a book that made me laugh out loud. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a story about Arthur Dent, his friend Ford Prefect, and their adventures in outer space. Ford Prefect, an alien from the planet Betelgeuse V was on earth, in disguise to complete research. Ford is a reporter for the encyclopedia known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This guide is a giant encyclopedia stored in a small computer that contains important information for intergalactic hitchhikers. When Ford discovers that the Earth will soon be destroyed, he alerts his friend Arthur Dent. Ford urges Arthur to leave Earth with him and they soon hitch a ride on a Vogon spaceship. But as Arthur soon finds out, Vogon's aren't friendly beings, and the captain of the ship wasn't to happy they came aboard. The Vogons tortured the two with horrible poetry and then dumped them into space. Now according to the Hitchhiker's Guide, a person can hold his breath in space for 30 seconds before he dies. 29 seconds later Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent were recued from space. They now found themselves on a ship called the Heart of Gold with the president of the universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox and his friend Trillian. Douglas Adams is a comedic genius and does a wonderful job of satirizing the human race. Humans are considered to be primitive, the third smartest species on Earth, and Earth is considered "mostly harmless". Unlike many books I have read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy kept me interested and wanting to read more. I definitely recommend this book and I will most likely begin reading the other books in this series. If you enjoy science fiction books and have a good sense of humor, you would definitely enjoy this book.
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