City News

   The most impressive thing about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which was originally written as a radio show and later adapted into a series of novels, is its unapologetic weirdness. The book does not make much sense, but somehow the reader greatly enjoys the experience of reading it anyways. The best part of this book is that it nearly perfectly captures the absolute weirdness of life, and the sort of thought process and reasoning that a character would go through in these sorts of situations. Many lines in the book may make you have an existential crisis, or laugh out loud. Others may take you a good few minutes or a reread to fully comprehend, although comprehending the book is completely unnecessary for the reader to enjoy it fully. It is, without a doubt, my favorite book ever, and I think even people who hate reading would benefit from and even enjoy listening to its audiobook or even just skimming the pages. I think I have reread it every year since the first time I picked it up.

   The plot of this book follows an alien hitchhiker named Ford Prefect and the last human being from Earth, Arthur Dent. Earth is destroyed to make room for a galactic freeway, and Arthur is the only human able to hitch a ride due to Ford’s knowledge of traveling on flying saucers. Ford is a writer for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which contains only a two word entry on Earth (“mostly harmless”). The plot continues to become more and more ridiculous and make less and less sense while remaining just as funny and enjoyable. For example, a major plot point is that the Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42, but nobody knows what the question is. Later on, it is discovered that mice were the smartest creatures on Earth, and that humans ranked third in intelligence. Even the footnotes are funny, interesting, and worth reading. However, most of the book will also make the readers seriously question how any human thought it up. Therefore, I would not recommend this book to anyone who needs a serious plot, or who needs to completely understand what is going on. 

   My only criticism of this book is that it is not for everyone. You need to be able to relax and see the humor in the book, and also to read it without caring too much about what a book is usually supposed to have (such as character arcs, a coherent plot, etc.) It is a comedy, and is not meant to be taken seriously at all. Despite this, anyone can probably appreciate many of the extremely quotable lines scattered throughout the series. It almost feels like some sort of sitcom or cartoon for adults rather than a book. I would also recommend at least reading the second book in the series, The Restaurant At the End of the Universe, which is much like a short story that follows the characters introduced in the first book. 

   Overall, I would suggest this book to absolutely anyone who can suspend their disbelief and enjoy a story. Enjoyers of science fiction, fantasy, and comedy books will especially love it. I’ve even heard people who hate reading say that it is their favorite book, and I have to agree with them. It gets an overwhelming 11 out of 10 from me, and a glowing recommendation. 

Check out The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the Newport Beach Public Library.