Customer Reviews
Loved it years ago, love it still - By: CosmicBadger, 11 Dec 2008 
Nothing really to add than has already been written. A truly superb book whic has lead me onto reading Rankin, Pratchett & FForde. Just finished The Day Jesus Rode Into Croydon by Daryl Gould, also brilliant.
I thought it would be funnier. - By: OK, 15 Sep 2008 
I hate to say it but I didn't enjoy the book that much, it was alright & funnyin parts but it just wasn't enough. I prefere Terry Pratchet books. I'm disappointed that I didn't love the book, but I don't know if I'm disappointed at me, the book or both. It just wasn't funny enough.
Forty Two Reasons to Buy. - By: Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers', 30 Jul 2008 And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, I borrowed Hitch Hikers from the library & changed my outlook on reading forever. At school they told us what & when to read & as a consequence I'd never read anything except for `Winnie-the-Pooh' & `The House at Pooh Corner', then they sent us home to revise for our `O' levels & I needed a silent occupation to keep me entertained whilst my Mother thought I was revising. Early on I was caught with my walkman on, I hadn't heard my mum coming up the steps, & so reading seemed like the ideal solution.
I'd enjoyed the TV series of Hitch Hikers & so got this from the library & changed overnight from a non-reader to a prolific reader. I didn't so much read as consume this & the remainder of the then four Hitch Hikers books over the next couple of days. Douglas Adams prose was so entertaining that it not only made him instantly my favourite but also introduced me to reading for pleasure. Before my revision leave was over I'd not only read the four part Hitch Hikers trilogy three times but I had also read the entire output of Tom Sharpe as well as all the James Bond & Phillip Marlowe books.
Twenty five years later Adams is still my favourite author & I can't help but think if I'd not discovered these books then I would never have read & would have missed out on all the hundreds of great books I've read since. Mind you I might have done betterin my `O' levels, I could have been a contender....
Very clever "...the Best Bang since the Big One..." - By: L. Fleming, 21 Feb 2008 
I'm not really a science fiction fan, which might go some way to explain why I only read this for the first time at the age of 28!
Bornin the year of it's release, I remember being vaguely aware of the TV series, but had never watched it. This is a book that everyone has heard of. Even if you've never read it, it's one that'sin your consciousness. I remember seeing the bookin the library as a kid but passing it over as I thought it was "a boys book". (This was a girl who wanted to read Anne of Green Gables & Little Women).
I wish I had read this as a pre-teen. Although some of the humour & observations madein the book would be appreciated by adults, on a different level, it is writtenin a pre-teen style.
Hitchhiker's is a lot of fun. It's silly, comical & satirical. It also makes some fascinating & pertinent observations on politics, beauracracy, philosophy & human naturein general. Douglas Adams was clearly a hugely intelligent, perceptive man & a great conceptual thinker. Obviously, writtenin 1979, some of his references are a little outdated - such as the digital watches; & of course the Guide itself exsists today,in the guise of an on-line encyclopaedia such as Wikipedia! However, despite this, many of the ideasin the book have stood the test of time.
I would definitely recommend this book, even if you're not a sci-fi fan. As sci-fi goes, it's more Red Dwarf than John Wyndham. Adams is a cracking comedy writer & some of the linesin the book are hilarious. I now look forward to reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe".
Dont panic just buy read and enjoy - By: G. Miller, 19 Sep 2007 I read these books ( please get all of them ) every year & they never fail to make me smile or enrich my life. So many wonderful ways to approach the mysterys of the universe & make it fun. It should bein every school & part of every teenagers life. Mr Adams , thank you , wherever you are. This ranks with Spike Milligans war memoise, the Pythons & The Simpsons.
