Fabian {Councillor}'s Reviews > The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.”

Did this make you laugh already? Fine, because the rest of Douglas Adams' famous novel includes many more of those humorous elements.

I have a very difficult personal history with Sci-Fi novels; some of them I could appreciate but not enjoy; some I could appreciate but got bored with them very quickly; but The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the first Sci-Fi novel which ever made me simultaneously appreciate, enjoy and even love the book. Love is a strong word, but if a book is filled with sentences like “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't” or “Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job” or “My capacity for happiness you could fit into a matchbox without taking out the matches first”, then I simply can't help but fall in love with it.

“So this is it," said Arthur, "We are going to die."
"Yes," said Ford, "except... no! Wait a minute!" He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. "What's this switch?" he cried.
"What? Where?" cried Arthur, twisting round.
"No, I was only fooling," said Ford, "we are going to die after all.”

I could go on and quote the entire book now, that's how much fun it was reading this and that's how quotable the book is. But Douglas Adams didn't only attempt (and succeed) to write this groundbreaking approach to the science fiction genre, he was also able to make you think a lot about several important questions: What is the meaning of life? Why do we live? Why do we die? What is the meaning of the Universe? Adams intentionally answers these questions in rather absurd ways, mainly because it is impossible to find ultimate answers and definitions for these topics. But those are all questions everyone has already asked themselves, and Adams isn't afraid to tackle them in a way that the reader can't help but laugh about it.

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

If you haven't read this book yet, perhaps because you are afraid of the Sci-Fi genre (which I was as well, until I started my adventures with Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Marvin and all the others in this book): then don't hesitate to read it. But don't be mistaken, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is (probably) not the best book you will ever find, it is (probably) not going to make you cry because of its emotional intensity, it is (probably) not going to keep you on the edge of your seat due to its ming-bogglingly suspenseful plot. Adams' book is rather an episodic account of several random adventures in the cosmic space, and for me it was mostly Adams' writing style which it was impossible to resist. He lures his readers into the story and before you even realize it, you are probably already laughing.

And don't forget to bring your towel!