The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ratings2,453
Average rating4.2
Was ok. Was expecting more sci-fi than comedy so not really my cup of tea as I didn't find the absurdist humor too funny
This book is seriously so silly and clever. Talk about quotable in day-to-day life too. Highly recommend if you'd like a laugh and enjoy British humor, or if you like sci-fi and want to read something that sort of pokes fun at some of the classics in a clever way.
Longtime fan. Have to read this every 5 years or so. Perhaps an acquired taste, but it combines two of my favorite things; British humour and books. Nonsensical, funny space fiction punctuated by creative word sequences and astute observations.
I did not know what to expect, and I think that was good. A ridiculous and funny cruise around the galaxy. Now I have to go read the rest of the series...
Delightful, witty, and quick! I enjoyed the British slant of the language and the total non-seriousness of the story. Will definitely pick up the sequels!
Well, that happened.
Really, I was going back and forth between two stars and three, but ultimately I decided to go with Goodreads scale and give it two stars because ‘it was okay'. The problem for me is that the humor this book has isn't really my sense of humor. (Sure, there were a couple things that were funny - but chuckle funny, not I-have-to-put-the-book-down-because-I-can't-breathe funny.) I was calling this nonsense humor until I did a quick internet search and found surreal humor. This isn't listed as that anyplace I can find, but that's what I'd call this book. And I know from personal experience from other media that I do not find surreal humor funny. (Pani Poni Dash, I look at you.)
Beautiful. Imaginative. Satirical. Brilliant analogies. Exceptional dialogues. Loved Marvin and 42...wish I had read it sooner.
Clever, Hilarious, and great flow. Much better than the film as it does not focus on the relationships and Zaphod is shown to be really smart rather than a bumbling idiot.
“All right,” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to the Great Question...“
“Yes..!”
“Of Life, the Universe and Everything...” said Deep Thought.
“Yes...!”
“Is...” said Deep Thought, and paused.
“Yes...!”
“Is...“
“Yes...!!!...?”
“Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”
So my review of this book is a mixture of the two very different places I was in life when I read it. My first read was about five years ago when I was really going through a lot in life. Reading it now five years later while I'm not a huge fan of how the book is written, the message contained has a different meaning. The wily characters in this story in my opinion provide different views of our walk through life. As such we grow and evolve to our next stages and at times have to be reminded that nothing in life is absolute except death. Which in and of itself may really seem morbid, but in the long run not so much. The theme of spontaneity is one that in general a touch of has never hurt anyone and reading this has reminded me to hold on to. While the Great Question that we all have (because we all have one) my deliver to us an answer that we may not understand in that moment, we should not stop searching. All in all great read and wonderful book to pick up anytime.
Medianamente divertida, esperaba más. Ciencia ficción y comedia. Probablemente te guste.
Simply, the relative best series!
If you love this series, don't forget to carry a towel with you on 25 May - Towel Day: a cult literary tradition.
This book contradicts with every major realm of science I know. Physics in general, evolution and so on and yet it is marked as ‘science fiction'! I doubt in its genre. Whatever, the book is insanely humorous. And those entries in the guide... oh lord flying spaghetti monster!
Essa foi minha segunda releitura d'O Guia; a terceira vez que li, portanto. A última havia sido em... 2010. Uau. Enfim, depois de uma vida toda, aparentemente, eu me sentei para reler O Guia do Mochileiro das Galáxias, e como foi bom reencontrar essa história, you folks! Tudo, tudo, desde os personagens — menos o Zaphod — até as piadas mais bobas, me fez rir e me sentir nostálgico. Fiquei com saudade até do filme (!), e já me pus pra (re)ver a série de 1981.
Para quem não conhece, O Guia do Mochileiro das Galáxias conta a história de Arthur Dent, um terráqueo que se vê viajando pelo universo depois que a Terra é destruída — ou talvez conte a história d'O Guia do Mochileiro das Galáxias, a mais extraordinária enciclopédia já publicada pelas grandes editoras de Ursa Menor — ou pode ser que conte a história das criaturas mais inteligentes do planeta Terra, os ratos, e seu grande plano para descobrir a pergunta fundamental sobre a vida, o universo e tudo mais, cuja resposta é 42 — vocês entenderam. Assim, com uma ideia maravilhosa e sacadas geniais, O Guia é tanto um clássico como uma pérola (?) da literatura; um ícone da comédia e da ficção científica. Afirmo que vale uma boa leitura, e vale cada releitura depois disso. If I'm lucky, minha próxima pode ser na edição maravilhosa da Folio Society, quem sabe?
Menção honrosa:
I just did not get this book. I'm glad I read it, for the sake of understanding pop culture, but geez, it was all plot and no development.
Okay, so, technically I loved everything about it. I absolutely LOVED the humor, I loved the idea of it and the world and the robots and finally realizing that this is where the “42” thing came from.
Though, at the same time, I think that I overhyped it a bit for myself, since it kind of lost me somewhere halfway and I started losing interest, so this was definitely the right length for me. I loved the beginning though, and I was super into it, but ultimately I wasn't as into the rest of it as much as I wished I was.
I am very glad to have read (or rather listened) to it though! It does feel very much like a “must-listen” and I thought the narration was very excellent!
I'm not about to rush to see the movie, though I hear it's terrible, but I didn't think the book was that fantastic either. It was just okay. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I wasn't invested in any of the characters, but I did enjoy the human's ranking in smartest beings on Earth and who was the smartest. That was a fun bit!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 Stars
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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If I'm not really careful, this will be the longest thing I ever post here. Let's see how much restraint I have, shall we?
I think I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time in 1987 (maybe 1988), and have read it countless times since then. I quote it all the time (frequently unconsciously and unintentionally) – I think I've even plagiarized it a couple of times (really unintentionally). The only reason that my PIN isn't 4242 is because it seems to be too obvious. I love this book. Rereading it is still fun. Even though I have paragraphs committed to memory, I can hear large portions of it in the voices of the original radio play actors, still the act of reading it is enjoyable, it's like coming home after a long day at work.
The fixation on digital watches seems so quaint. It starts in the first paragraph and doesn't really let up until late in the book. I so wish Adams was with us to see what he'd do with our smartphone addictions.
So much of what Adams does here has been repeated by others that he inspired, it's tough to see some of it as fresh anymore, but he didn't so much break the mold as ignored it and accidentally created a new one.
The Vogons are fantstic creatures. From the description of their evolutionary process – abandoned though it may be – their anatomy, their inherent meanness, to the commentary on civil servants. Just a fun alien race to read about. But is Adams satisfied with that? No. He adds the monstrosity that is their poetry (and the swipe at the old schoolmate) and they near perfection.
The Babel fish, what can you say about that? They are inspired. They take care of a problem that every space-bound Science Fiction story has to deal with in a way that's actually more believable than technology-based solutions (Doctor Who does the same thing a bit less convolutedly, but less amusingly, too).
The Python-esque dialogue of the representatives of the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and Other Thinking Persons. Is just a delight and picks up what could be a lull in the story.
Another little bonus that's easy to over look is cop ex machina appearance of the Blagulon Kappa police officers – they're a great commentary on law enforcement, notions of masculinity, depictions of both in the media – and how all three were undergoing a change at the time.
Strip away all the laughs, the jokes, the satire, the general zaniness and you still ahve a decent story – not a great one, mind you, but a decent one. There's some good character work here, too – but it's hard to see. The reactions of both Arthur and Trillian to the destruction of Earth are a lot deeper and real then Adams needed to make them. Unfortunately, that's about all the good that Adams does with Trillian. Arthur still has some good treatment in his future.
It's not perfect, don't get me wrong – there are some problems with the characters (see Trillian), it being an adaptation of the radio program makes things a bit episodic with clunky transitions, and other hiccups (like the multiple introductions of Ford Prefect). Still, the highs are higher than the lows are low and there are a lot more of them.
I stopped taking notes of particular lines on page 5 this time, there are just too many to count, and far too many to list. Still, there are a few I have to note:
– “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
– “This must be Thursday. . . I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”
– “You'd better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace. It's unpleasantly like being drunk.”
“What's so unpleasant about being drunk?”
“You ask a glass of water.” (I'm not sure why, but this has always made me chuckle, if not actually laugh out loud. It's just never not funny)
– “He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided im with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.”
– “In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centuari. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before . . . “
– “Look,” said Arthur, “would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?”
– Slartibartfast (okay, not technically a line, but that name...c'mon)
It's a classic, you just need to read it if you haven't. If you have, is it time for a re-read?
I guess I must have missed something? The beginning started out very strong! Humorous and very good set up but then lots of random events and characters got introduced with no build up, I had a hard time caring about anyone or anything that happened.
The bit with the mice and the dolphins was very funny and the reason why I didn't give the book just one star.
I wonder if the badly designed and random nature of the book was a metaphor for how the author views the universe? Either way, didn't cut it for me.
Short read that honestly everyone should go through, whether they like science fiction or not. Light-hearted but dives into really important questions that everyone ought to think about.
This one so closely follows the old BBC miniseries that I had to laugh along with it. All of the parts I remember from when I watched it as a kid – Deep Thought, Norway, the Earth, the Highway. Hitchhikers Guide was the first comedic science fiction I ever learned about and I see why this is a classic.
This one so closely follows the old BBC miniseries that I had to laugh along with it. All of the parts I remember from when I watched it as a kid – Deep Thought, Norway, the Earth, the Highway. Hitchhikers Guide was the first comedic science fiction I ever learned about and I see why this is a classic.
I absolutely loved this book, now I am hooked on the series. It is a hilarious book with lots of funny scenes. I enjoyed it because it took ordinary things in our world and added funny stories to go with them. It also compared the problems of the main protagonist, Arthur Dent, to things on a larger scale. It also has a very tangled and developed plot good enough to keep you hooked. This is a good book for anybody to read because of its sheer humor and good plot, but it is especially a good read for anybody who feels depressed because you can compare all your problems with the Galaxy's problems.
Finally checked this one off the bucket list. It definitely lived up to expectations. I am just kicking myself for not reading it, say, 20 years ago, because I would like to know how it felt to read it as a kid.