Read History
2023 | Score: 8
My first time reading the series. This was really fun and pretty short. Douglas Adams seems like a fun person, and it is nice to finally understand references to this book. It is so absurdly nonsensical that I think anyone could enjoy it no matter their genre preference.
Format: Book
Days: 10
Date: 4/2/2023 -> 4/12/2023
2026 | Score: 7
Still checks all the boxes it is supposed to. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I did when I first read it but still enjoy the satire and his commentary on different issues. Going to read through the whole series.
Format: Book
Days: 5
Date: 9/18/2026 -> 9/23/2026
Summary (Spoilers)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #1
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Summary
Arthur Dent woke up Thursday morning slightly hungover and was going about his morning when he remembered that people from the council are coming to knock his house down so they can build a bypass. Mr. L. Prosser, of the council (And distantly related to Genghis Khan), arrives with bulldozers which Arthur blocks with his body. They argue for a while about his house getting knocked down, because technically all the paperwork was done correctly but no one notified Arthur and he obviously does not want his house knocked down.
Shortly after this Arthur’s friend Ford Prefect arrives. Unknown to anyone, he is actually from a small planet near Betelgeuse, and got stuck on Earth while travelling doing research for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ford talks Mr. Prosser into blocking the bulldozers himself and then takes Arthur to the pub to get a drink, since the world is about to end. He tells Arthur he is an alien and they drink together, to help relax the muscles. Shortly after this Arthur’s house gets demolished but he forgets about that when spaceships appear in the sky.
Postetnic Vogon Jeltz shows up with his fleet and destroys the Earth.
On the other side of the galaxy, Zaphod Bebblebrox, president of the Imperial Galactic Government, arrives in front of a crowd on Damogran to unveil a secret project they have been working on, the Heart of Gold, a high-tech new spaceship. Zaphod says he wants to steal it and uses a bomb to paralyze everyone present.
Arthur and Ford wake up in one of the Vogon ships, having been helped aboard by some of the Dentrassis, aliens who cook for the Vogons. Ford gives Arthur his copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy so he can learn more, and puts a fish in his ear that will translate everything he hears. Vogon’s hate many things, including stowaways, so Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz captures the pair and shoots them out an airlock into space.
Arthur and Ford get rescued by a random spaceship, which happens to be the Heart of Gold. It is powered by an Infinite Improbability Drive, so improbable things tend to happen when it is involved. It turns out Ford and Zaphod are cousins of sort and spend a lot of time together in their childhoods, and the lady Zaphod brought with him when stealing the ship, Trillian (or Tricia McMillan), met Arthur at a party 6 months ago. They are also accompanied by Marvin, a depressed robot.
They soon arrive at Magrathea, a very improbable event. Magrathea used to be the center where people would custom make planets for the ultra wealthy, but they disappeared years ago as the economy waned. Some missiles are shot at them as they approach but the Improbability drive turns them into a whale and potted plant, and when they land they discover they hit the whale and it blasted a hole into an underground tunnel network. Arthur and Marvin are left behind to guard the rear while Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian continue on.
Zaphod tells them that he isn’t sure what he is doing, but he did some brain scans and discovered someone altered sections of both his brains (He has two heads), and it turns out it was him but he can no longer remember why or what he did. Arthur and Marvin get picked up by a local who was woken up, Slartibartfast. He explains how Earth was a supercomputer that had been working on a solution for 10 million years, and was destroyed 5 minutes before completing its task.
In the distant past, a group of pandimensional beings created a supercomputer called Deep Thought, and asked it the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Some philosophers got upset but were mollified. After 7.5 million years, deep thought had the answer, which was: 42. This was confusing so they wanted to know what the question is that 42 answers. Deep thought did not know but helped them design the Earth to figure out what the question is.
The pandimensional beings represent themselves in our dimension as mice, so mice have been running a huge experiment using the Earth for millions of years. Arthur is reunited with Zaphod, Trillian, and Ford and introduced to two mice, Benjy and Frankie, who are quite upset about the destruction of Earth. They offer to buy Arthur’s brain since he is an Earthman who was on it shortly before destruction, but he refuses as he wants to keep it. They are forced to flee and fight their way past guards and some cops, but make it back to the Heart of Gold. Zaphod says he will take them to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. THE END.