British & Irish
![Douglas Adams - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B000AQ2A84.jpg)
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
In one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams's beloved Hitchhiker series.
Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read)
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
The moment before annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.
Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription thrusts him back to reality. So to speak.
Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?
Includes the bonus story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"
"With droll wit, a keen eye for detail and heavy doses of insight . . . Adams makes us laugh until we cry."-San Diego Union-Tribune
"Lively, sharply satirical, brilliantly written . . . ranks with the best set pieces in Mark Twain."-The Atlantic
Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read)
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
The moment before annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.
Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription thrusts him back to reality. So to speak.
Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?
Includes the bonus story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"
"With droll wit, a keen eye for detail and heavy doses of insight . . . Adams makes us laugh until we cry."-San Diego Union-Tribune
"Lively, sharply satirical, brilliantly written . . . ranks with the best set pieces in Mark Twain."-The Atlantic
Editorial Reviews
"WITH DROLL WIT, A KEEN EYE FOR DETAIL AND HEAVY DOSES OF INSIGHT . . . ADAMS MAKES US LAUGH UNTIL WE CRY."
–San Diego Union
"LIVELY, SHARPLY SATIRICAL, BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN . . . RANKS WITH THE BEST SET PIECES IN MARK TWAIN."
–The Atlantic
–San Diego Union
"LIVELY, SHARPLY SATIRICAL, BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN . . . RANKS WITH THE BEST SET PIECES IN MARK TWAIN."
–The Atlantic
Readers Top Reviews
Steffen Hansen
With HHGTTG, the answer is a simple yes. Even though I know it by heart, it never ceases to entertain and make me laugh out loud every once in a while. Mr. Adams’ way with words is, well, out of this world and it still saddens me deeply we lost him way way too soon. Till next time Mr. Adams.
Jay D LarrickStef
Doug Adam’s prescient. Sorry he’s gone. Pretty funny imaginative stuff. Doug Adam’s prescient. Sorry he’s gone. Pretty funny imaginative stuff. Now this is more than 20 words.
Aryel S.Jay D Lar
This book and this author are the standard of which all books should be held. The writing is imaginative and intelligent; humorous, dark and touching. I will read these books over and over again as they are just so wonderful. My son is now reading them and finds them hilarious and intriguing.
ZacharyAryel S.Ja
On the kindle menu, whether or not being on the computer or the device itself, whenever I've it downloaded the book, it doesn't show the name "Douglas Adams". It simply doesn't show it, as if there is something about the code, a glitch maybe. I have a theory that the ones on the computer and kindle weren't able to display "Adams, Douglas", so they gone with the next best thing, not showing it at all. On my phone is showed it as "Adams, Douglas" leading to my theory. Anything else is great to good writing, the first two books felt like a space Monty Python movie, the other three vibe more or less like "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It as if the mental voice of Adams gotten a sore throat leading to the last three novels to a sound bit different. Is something I will recommend. Really it's a good book, yes, some might not get it, some do, its absurdist humor in a non-video format. The thing with books you have to generate the visuals yourself from the words in it, unlike other mediums, I.e. video games, video, comic books, etc. Yet it, originally being a radio series, adapted into a series of five books, tv series, a movie, and one of those text adventure games in the 1980s, surely its a accessible fandom to get into. Even though it many go down in quality by the three book, there's one helpful piece of advice, Don't Panic. TLDR; Good books, bad metadata: authors name not show in menu.
John OZacharyArye
What can be said? It's the greatest sci-fi comedy "trilogy" ever written--all in one volume. I had to purchase it because I lost at least two copies of all of the books due to failed relationships or moves. Good to have them all back to share with the rest of the fam.
Short Excerpt Teaser
What Was He Like,
Douglas Adams?
He was tall, very tall. He had an air of cheerful diffidence. He
combined a razor-sharp intellect and understanding of what
he was doing with the puzzled look of someone who had
backed into a profession that surprised him in a world that
perplexed him. And he gave the impression that, all in all, he was rather
enjoying it.
He was a genius, of course. It's a word that gets tossed around a lot
these days, and it's used to mean pretty much anything. But Douglas was
a genius, because he saw the world differently, and more importantly, he
could communicate the world he saw. Also, once you'd seen it his way
you could never go back.
Douglas Noel Adams was born in 1952 in Cambridge, England (shortly
before the announcement of an even more influential DNA, deoxyribonucleic
acid). He was a self-described "strange child" who did not learn
to speak until he was four. He wanted to be a nuclear physicist ("I never
made it because my arithmetic was so bad"), then went to Cambridge to
study English, with ambitions that involved becoming part of the tradition
of British writer/performers (of which the members of Monty Python's
Flying Circus are the best-known example).
When he was eighteen, drunk in a field in Innsbruck, hitchhiking across
Europe, he looked up at the sky filled with stars and thought, "Somebody
ought to write the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Then he went to
sleep and almost, but not quite, forgot all about it.
He left Cambridge in 1975 and went to London where his many writ-ing
and performing projects tended, in the main, not to happen. He
worked with former Python Graham Chapman writing scripts and sketches
for abortive projects (among them a show for Ringo Starr which contained
the germ of Starship Titanic) and with writer-producer John Lloyd
(they pitched a series called Snow Seven and the White Dwarfs, a comedy
about two astronomers in "an observatory on Mt. Everest–"The idea
for that was minimum casting, minimum set, and we'd just try to sell the
series on cheapness").
He liked science fiction, although he was never a fan. He supported
himself through this period with a variety of odd jobs: he was, for example,
a hired bodyguard for an oil-rich Arabian family, a job that entailed
wearing a suit and sitting in hotel corridors through the night listening to
the ding of passing elevators.
In 1977 BBC radio producer (and well-known mystery author) Simon
Brett commissioned him to write a science fiction comedy for BBC Radio
Four. Douglas originally imagined a series of six half-hour comedies
called The Ends of the Earth–funny stories which at the end of each, the
world would end. In the first episode, for example, the Earth would be
destroyed to make way for a cosmic freeway.
But, Douglas soon realized, if you are going to destroy the Earth, you
need someone to whom it matters. Someone like a reporter for, yes, the
Hitchchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And someone else . . . a man who was
called Alaric B in Douglas's original proposal. At the last moment Douglas
crossed out Alaric B and wrote above it Arthur Dent. A normal name
for a normal man.
For those people listening to BBC Radio 4 in 1978 the show came as a
revelation. It was funny–genuinely witty, surreal, and smart. The series
was produced by Geoffrey Perkins, and the last two episodes of the first
series were co-written with John Lloyd.
(I was a kid who discovered the series–accidentally, as most listeners
did–with the second episode. I sat in the car in the driveway, getting
cold, listening to Vogon poetry, and then the ideal radio line "Ford,
you're turning into an infinite number of penguins," and I was happy;
perfectly, unutterably happy.)
By now, Douglas had a real job. He was the script editor for the long-running
BBC SF series Doctor Who, in the Tom Baker days.
Pan Books approached him about doing a book based on the radio series,
and Douglas got the manuscript for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy in to his editors at Pan slightly late (according to legend they telephoned
him and asked, rather desperately, where he was in the book, and
how much more he had to go. He told them. "Well," said his editor,
making the best of a bad job, "just finish the page you're on and we'll
send a motorbike around to pick it up in half an hour"). The book, a paperback
original, became a surprise bestseller, as did, less surprisingly, its
four sequels. It spawned a bestselling text-based computer game.
Douglas Adams?
He was tall, very tall. He had an air of cheerful diffidence. He
combined a razor-sharp intellect and understanding of what
he was doing with the puzzled look of someone who had
backed into a profession that surprised him in a world that
perplexed him. And he gave the impression that, all in all, he was rather
enjoying it.
He was a genius, of course. It's a word that gets tossed around a lot
these days, and it's used to mean pretty much anything. But Douglas was
a genius, because he saw the world differently, and more importantly, he
could communicate the world he saw. Also, once you'd seen it his way
you could never go back.
Douglas Noel Adams was born in 1952 in Cambridge, England (shortly
before the announcement of an even more influential DNA, deoxyribonucleic
acid). He was a self-described "strange child" who did not learn
to speak until he was four. He wanted to be a nuclear physicist ("I never
made it because my arithmetic was so bad"), then went to Cambridge to
study English, with ambitions that involved becoming part of the tradition
of British writer/performers (of which the members of Monty Python's
Flying Circus are the best-known example).
When he was eighteen, drunk in a field in Innsbruck, hitchhiking across
Europe, he looked up at the sky filled with stars and thought, "Somebody
ought to write the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Then he went to
sleep and almost, but not quite, forgot all about it.
He left Cambridge in 1975 and went to London where his many writ-ing
and performing projects tended, in the main, not to happen. He
worked with former Python Graham Chapman writing scripts and sketches
for abortive projects (among them a show for Ringo Starr which contained
the germ of Starship Titanic) and with writer-producer John Lloyd
(they pitched a series called Snow Seven and the White Dwarfs, a comedy
about two astronomers in "an observatory on Mt. Everest–"The idea
for that was minimum casting, minimum set, and we'd just try to sell the
series on cheapness").
He liked science fiction, although he was never a fan. He supported
himself through this period with a variety of odd jobs: he was, for example,
a hired bodyguard for an oil-rich Arabian family, a job that entailed
wearing a suit and sitting in hotel corridors through the night listening to
the ding of passing elevators.
In 1977 BBC radio producer (and well-known mystery author) Simon
Brett commissioned him to write a science fiction comedy for BBC Radio
Four. Douglas originally imagined a series of six half-hour comedies
called The Ends of the Earth–funny stories which at the end of each, the
world would end. In the first episode, for example, the Earth would be
destroyed to make way for a cosmic freeway.
But, Douglas soon realized, if you are going to destroy the Earth, you
need someone to whom it matters. Someone like a reporter for, yes, the
Hitchchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And someone else . . . a man who was
called Alaric B in Douglas's original proposal. At the last moment Douglas
crossed out Alaric B and wrote above it Arthur Dent. A normal name
for a normal man.
For those people listening to BBC Radio 4 in 1978 the show came as a
revelation. It was funny–genuinely witty, surreal, and smart. The series
was produced by Geoffrey Perkins, and the last two episodes of the first
series were co-written with John Lloyd.
(I was a kid who discovered the series–accidentally, as most listeners
did–with the second episode. I sat in the car in the driveway, getting
cold, listening to Vogon poetry, and then the ideal radio line "Ford,
you're turning into an infinite number of penguins," and I was happy;
perfectly, unutterably happy.)
By now, Douglas had a real job. He was the script editor for the long-running
BBC SF series Doctor Who, in the Tom Baker days.
Pan Books approached him about doing a book based on the radio series,
and Douglas got the manuscript for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy in to his editors at Pan slightly late (according to legend they telephoned
him and asked, rather desperately, where he was in the book, and
how much more he had to go. He told them. "Well," said his editor,
making the best of a bad job, "just finish the page you're on and we'll
send a motorbike around to pick it up in half an hour"). The book, a paperback
original, became a surprise bestseller, as did, less surprisingly, its
four sequels. It spawned a bestselling text-based computer game.
