Title: TheHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Publisher: Del Ray 2002

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 143

Rating:   5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Science Fiction; Page to Screen; A to Z Author: A

How I Got It: I own It!

It's safe to say that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of the funniest science fiction novels ever written. Adams spoofs many core science fiction tropes: space travel, aliens, interstellar war--stripping away all sense of wonder and repainting them as commonplace, even silly.  This omnibus edition begins with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which Arthur Dent is introduced to the galaxy at large when he is rescued by an alien friend seconds before Earth's destruction.

Book

A wonderful reread.  I just love the wackiness of Adams' universe.  From the ship Heart of Gold to Marvin the Robot, this book gets me every time.  I read this today during the down times are work.  And I'm sure some of my coworkers think I'm that crazy giggling girl.  I can't help but laugh out loud at the passages.  I decided to just reread the first book in the series.  I just wanted to remember how this crazy train started. My favorite parts are still the excerpts from the Guide.  But this time I really stuck on the introduction of Zaphod from the Guide.  All of Adams' characters are fun and slightly quirky, but Zaphod takes the cake. 

Beeblebrox, the man who invented the Pan Galatic Gargle Blaster, ex-confidence trickster, once described by Eccentrica Gallumbits as the Best Bang since the Big One, and recently voted the Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe for the seventh time...  -- Pg. 67

The best introduction note in all of literature. 

Movie

Now what to say about the movie...  I really have mixed feelings abotu this one.  I love some of the actors and scenes.  And then I'm just dissapointed with some of the other aspects.

The Good -- I just adore Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, and Zooey Deschanel.  They are perfect (but I'm going with Sam's Zaphod as my favorite).  They embody the characters well.  And I can't forget about Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast.  He plays the best "is he daffy or increibly wise" character.  Love him!  I did like the interludes of the Guide entries.  The one about the Vogons is especially fun.  

The Not-So-Good -- I feel like the movie mostly missed the tone of the book.  They made it this romance between Arthur and Trillian.  They wrapped the story up at the end.  The book doesn't have those things.  I felt like the movie tried to be too much of a "normal" story; something the book just isn't.  

The book is amazing; a must read.  The movie: not so much.