YouTube has it in 5 parts, starting here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dristarg#p/u/0/DWChgTIEGUw

I found out about the book from the computer geek culture. I was looking around many years ago on www.thinkgeek.com and saw this book. I finally checked it out from the library and have liked it ever sense. The movie was so bad that it was actually hard to stop watching. My favorite characters are Marvin and Authar Dent. I love the dry yet point blank humor and being a car guy I got the Ford Prefect joke.

A fascinating book from an author whose imagination and wit are enormous. This after 2 readings some years apart.

RM

Mindboggling satire set in space, not scifi at all. I consider Adams a modern day Jonathan Swift.

I have all books, obssessively munched away in small time. I wonder if it'd be legal to search and download the books in digital format since I've paid for the physical versions, but I digress.

I've also listened to the radio originals after reading them. Spot on voice acting, but I miss the minute Adams commentary in the narration...

I know this about e-books but no mention is made of the audio book of HHGTTG read by Douglas Adams. It is wonderful.

I also have the two Dirk Gently books read by Douglas Adams. DGHDA is a great read but it is fantastic hearing it read by the author.

No, it wouldn't. It'd be like expecting free copies of the paperbacks if you've paid for the hardcovers already.

Excellent point- modern day Jonathan Swift- now you got me thinking.

That only makes it harder for me to laboriously type away copies of my own books for my own digital consumption. Of course, time is money and I'd likely just throw in my trusty towel and buy a copy from Amazon... :p


many people just mindlessly repeat the many well-known geeky jokes but thoroughly forget the best Adams comes very subtle in the author commentary poking fun on our very own sillyness interspeced in the narration of foreign events. Finesses satire that people often fail to acknowledge in the face of space theme and geek jokes.

I think many people don't notice the satire, never mind "fail to acknowledge" it- which is one of the things that makes this a good book. Because it's not just satire, it's also a darn good story with lots of good jokes. Again, like Swift- I first read "Gulliver" in a collection of children's stories when I was about 8 and had no clue there was such a thing as social satire. It's multi-layered, and can be enjoyed as just a story. Some of Swift's other writings, they're pure satire, not story, and nobody reads them nowadays unless they're English lit majors. But the story of Gulliver endured. I think it's the same thing with Adams. You can read HHG just as a fun story and feel clever throwing around the geek jokes, and there's nothing wrong with that. And if you "get" the satire, you can feel even more clever.

I remember listening to the series when it was first broadcast on BBC radio and struggling with the technology to record from radio to cassette!

Yet here I am, years later and many, many Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters too many, reading the books on a device smaller than the HHG itself. My Kindle even manages to talk to me in a strange voice (but nowhere near as eloquently as Peter Jones).

Now, if only I could get this teleporting thing to work properly. I've got my towel and I'm ready to go!

It was always the philosophical underpinnings of the humor in the series that made it a favorite of mine. I suppose that's why the idea of the babel fish as a proof of the non-existence of God always stuck with me.

Have you tried a fresh cup of really hot tea?

Agreed. A good Brownian motion generator may just do the trick.

I teleported home last night,
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Sidney took Meg's heart away
And I got Ronnie's leg.

Obviously I must be using the wrong kind of tea.

:rofl:

Never leave home without your towel.