Rabid Reader's Reviews

Release Date: April 30, 2002

 

If you haven’t read [easyazon_link identifier=”0345453743″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link] (go read it), this review may not be for you. It may seem illogical—but this is a review specifically written for those that reread Douglas Adams’ work regularly. These people exist. They are normally referred to as hoopy froods who always have a towel handy. Since Tammy a.k.a. Rabid Reader’s Reviews was tied up in the Vogon poetry appreciation chair, I volunteered to write this review. She is still alive and well, and I am pleased to inform you that she hasn’t gnawed off her own legs yet.

 

 

WARNING: This review contains spoilers. Known side effects of reading the [easyazon_link identifier=”0345453743″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link] are as follows:

• The Guide has a lot to say on the subject of towels. I’ll give you a fair warning: An obsession with towels which may also lead to sucking on them for comfort is given. I don’t believe you can by-pass this.

• An obscure relationship with number 42. The number is considered a sign and any occurrence of 42 will have a hoopy frood immediately take out a camera or a smartphone to capture 42 in action. In conversation, answering a question with 42 will lead to knowingly nods.

 

Some Random thoughts about this book

Finally, after an infinite number of monkeys worked out the script, all five parts of the trilogy are available as one—The Ultimate Guide for die-hard hoopy froods. You are getting five novels in one outrageous volume.

So, Holy Photon, what kind of book is this?

What is known, at least according to Douglas Adams, is that [easyazon_link identifier=”0345453743″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link] is a very unevenly edited book and contains tons of passages that simply seemed to its editors like a good idea at that time. I have to admit that I like the foreword with instructions on “How to Leave the Planet”—it’s the most helpful or intelligible thing that I’ve ever read.

After reading and rereading [easyazon_link identifier=”0345453743″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link], I came to the conclusion that the book is about Life, the Universe and Everything with a science fiction backdrop. The story starts out on Earth and in the event it only lasts a few pages, giving readers an idea of just how significant their own existence is.

The Guide in five parts will make sure that you haven’t missed anything relevant to all questions about life. It gives the readers the ultimate answer—never mind the question—and since humans always demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty—42 is bliss.  

[easyazon_link identifier=”0345453743″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link] gives information on how to avoid any kind of involvement and responsibility by using the SEP-field and Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses. But then, I’ve seen stranger things free in my breakfast “serial.” The writings also contain an excursus on Bistromathics which is a scientific approach that can even calculate your chance of survival when it comes to restaurant bills, but I don’t think readers will like this because anyone will acknowledge that this leads to more complications than they might already have. Believe me, it’s just absurdly wrong to think anyone can solve major problems with just potatoes. This book contains excitement, adventure and really wild and hysterical things. The characters Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod and Marvin are just out of this world—or maybe even out-of-galaxy.

After putting in some Deep Thought, I don’t think that I missed anything in this book, but readers will know that it isn’t the fall that kills you but the sudden stop at the end. So, there’s no sense in driving yourself mad, you might just as well give in and save your sanity for later—or just spend a year dead for tax reasons may also be a good option.

The book ends with Arthur Dent still not getting the hang of Thursday and I admit that I really had problems just thinking down to this level. I enjoyed the trilogy in five parts immensely and was sad when it ended—I could not conceive that I could feel more wretched and awful than this. It’s funny, how just when you think life can’t possibly get any worse it suddenly does.

Although the first part of the trilogy was published in [easyazon_link identifier=”0345391802″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link] in 1978, readers needn’t panic. According to Douglas Adams, The Guide is definitive. It’s Reality that is frequently inaccurate.

[easyazon_link identifier=”0345453743″ locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/easyazon_link] is certainly the Biggest bang since the Big One, so put this book on your reading or rereading list again.

Rabid Reader’s Reviews wishes everyone near and far a hoopy Towel Day 2016. To put this into the Total Perspective Vortex, and case you missed the bus in Islington which arrives every two million years, flag down the Heart of Gold instead and we’ll see you either at The Big Bang Burger Bar, The Domain of the King or at Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe.

This review was brought to you by the Infinite Improbability Drive. 

Don’t know the question? Need The Answer? Then read an excerpt and pick up The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams on:

Amazon U.S. • Amazon U.K. • Amazon Canada

and spend some quality time with Zem and The Guide.

For more information about Douglas Adams and his work, visit his website and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition.

Guest review by @RangeWoman_Inc