Continuing with my attempt to finish reviewing my top ten favorite books, I come to the book which I have read only once. I never went back to this book for a very silly reason. Let me come back to the reason later in this post. I will begin with a very short background to this book, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Many reader may not be aware that the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an adaptation of the first four parts of Douglas Adams‘ radio series of the same name. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. Confused? The Trilogy series which actually consists of 5 books ( got you there, yes, I know Trilogy means three books!!), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984) and Mostly Harmless (1992). So, basically the entire Guide is a collection of five books. That’s easy to wrap your head around. Oh no wait, Irish author Eoin Colfer penned a sixth book, entitled And Another Thing, it was published in October 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the publication of the original novel. See, how the surprises never end.
Now to the book and the lasting impression it had left with me. Hitchhiker’s is considered as a cult classic, it is a comedy science fiction. It is not Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke, these are the two other science fiction writers I swear by, hence Adams’ intergalactic flight of imagination was a revelation, the characters were almost out of a comic book. What is so attractive about this world is not just the characters but the story, the story which is set in a galaxy far far away but is essentially a human story, a search for answers. Of course at the very end the reader does get an answer. I don’t want to spoil it for the readers who haven’t read this one. This brings me to the reason I never went back to the book. Once you reach that last page of the book the spell is broken. Once the spell was broken I couldn’t bring myself back to re-reading that book because I knew what was at the end of the book.It is a beautiful world, don’t get me wrong, it is also poignant with both the human emotions of sadness and joy, the joy of friendship and the loss of home. There is a philosophical strain running all through the book that is what attracts me to the book. Before you think that this book is too serious, it isn’t, I can assure you it is a fun read and it will make you think and it is a great read.
The book has been adapted into a movie in 2005 and less said the better about it. For me very few book adaptations work, but that is another blog post.
THE END.
Sources: Wikipedia, Image ( Google)
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