The More Than Complete Hitchhikers Guide

The edition of the Guide that replaced all others in my library, it contains an introduction by Douglas Adams that adds interesting details for fans of the series in his characteristic voice. Originally a radio series, it was produced by the BBC. "I think that the BBC's attitude toward the show while it was in production was very similar to that which Macbeth had toward murdering people--initial doubts, followed by cautious enthusiasm and then greater and greater alarm at the sheer scale of the undertaking and still no end in sight."

Adams continues that while the show was fun, "it didn't exactly buy you lunch," so he turned it into a book "in which some of the characters behaved in entirely different ways and others behaved in exactly show more the same ways but for entirely different reasons, which amounts to the same thing but saves rewriting the dialogue." Supposedly, this edition is "complete and unabridged," although, since Adams kept changing things, I'm not sure how 'complete' it is. It does have a bonus short story, "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe."

This edition contains The Hitchhiker's Guide, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything and looks suspiciously like the Good News Bible I was given as a child, with paper-thin, gold-leafed pages, albeit with a bonus cloth bookmark and leather binding. Honestly, it's probably fitting, as it was my go-to mockery of the world for at least a decade, and remains a strong influence.

It's responsible for my search for the perfect drink:

[The Guide] says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.


It's probably responsible for crystalizing my view of the human race:

One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behaviour. If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months' consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favour of a new one. If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical.


It likely expanded my love of word-play:

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

"You'd better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace. It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."


And it's clearly responsible for a personal running joke of 35 years, which I use to gauge the sci-fi and humor literacy of the people around me:

Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.


*And may I just add that as of May 6, 2017, the average star rating for the book is 4.20?

I rest my case. show less

A re-read. Obviously.

Read the entire thing aloud to Jefferson as bedtime story night after night. It took ages.

In recognition of both my father reading the first book to me as a bedtime story when I was a wee lass, and Andrew's many, many readings of this book in grad school. Bedtime story often became a whole family affair.

Thoughts on reading it all again: The first book and the fourth book are definitely my favorites. The second and third I could largely do without, except you'd miss the whole "Arthur learns to fly" bit. Otherwise the middle two seem so muddly and meandering. I got very impatient with them. My sister recently wrote of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series representing mastery: "There are no wobbly to-and-fro plotlines" in that show more saga. The Hitchhiker's Guide is pretty much the opposite of that.

That said, I love the mice, and the dolphins, and the Rain God, and Arthur. And, of course, most of the bits from the Guide. I love Trillian and Fenchurch, both. I love all the bits about the fjords.

To make completely modern, all you would have to do is replace every instance of "digital watches" with "smart phones." show less

The first three books in this collection are certainly worth five stars....while Douglas Adams' plotting is always a little wonky and his character work is sketchy, his prose is a dream to read. His sentence structure is a wonder to behold, and it's also very funny. Unfortunately, this is not a series that needed more than three books, and by the fourth book the plotting has become extremely problematic and impossible to ignore anymore and even his prose can't make up for the holes in both the plotting and the characters' personalities.

It's nice to have all 6 books of the books in the trilogy (ha!) gathered into one big volume, so that I don't need to go searching for the next book in the series when I've finished the previous. Once I start Hitchhiker's, I keep going until I finish Mostly Harmless. With the fancy leather binding, I can pretend that this is Serious Literature!
The series itself is fantastic, hilarious, and addictive. The "eddys in the space/time continuum" "And this is his sofa?" exchange in, I think, the third book reduces me to tears, I giggle so hard. Few books have the power to make me laugh out loud, and this one does over and over, even after multiple readings.
The plot follows the adventures of a Brit, Arthur Dent, from his attempts to prevent show more his house from being bulldozed to his interactions with his daughter. Along the way the Earth gets blown up, he zips around the universe with some of the funniest characters ever written (Marvin! Zaphod! Ford Prefect!), lands on a prototype of Earth (populated by hairdressers, etc.), and attempts to decipher the meaning of life, the universe and everything. And much, much more. Just read it. Even if you aren't into sci-fi. You'll be glad you did. show less

douglas adams is the funniest science fiction author i've ever had the privelege of reading. his absurdism, cynicism, sarcasm, and sheer brilliance coalesce into a series as comically convoluted as the Guide itself. whether it's explaining the intricacies of flying, the triple-breasted whores of eroticon six, or just telling another great drinking story, douglas adam pours laugh into laugh into this wonderful five-book trilogy.

too bad the movie was terrible.

Although I tried to read the first novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when I was too young for Brit humour (ok, except for Benny Hill, because let's face it, BH wasn't terribly intellectual), I was pleased to discover years later - in my teens, like many Adams' fans - that the Galaxy according to Douglas Adams is a hilarious and intriguing place to be. If you are able to take yourself and the world not at all seriously for hours at a time, if you understand that the meaning of life may be calculated but no one really needs the answer, and if you see the value in always having a towel close to hand, grab this mammoth compendium of (as per the cover) increasingly inaccurately titled Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy.

The Epitome of Awesomeness. All four of the original Hitchhiker's guide novels in one easy to carry volume, plus an additional short story that brings up a little extra background. If you've seen the movie…well, you need to read the books anyway, there was so much different between the stories as written, and as they were presented on screen. Hell, there were differences from the books to the radio scripts…all of this is more-or-less explained by Douglas in his introduction, which also contains detailed instructions on how to leave the earth if you are thus inclined. And who amongst us hasn't been at one time or another.

Fans of Pythonesque humor will rejoice though "serious" sci-fi fans may or may not "get it"; your mileage may show more vary. But there's a reason why millions have fallen in love with this story of interstellar travel on the cheap, and how to deal with your planet's sudden destruction in favor of a galactic freeway. Brew a cup of proper English tea, sit back and enjoy the ride.

My highest recommendation. show less