Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Book Review

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

I've read this before. Years and years ago. It was either late in high school or very early in college.

It was not an assignment.

I had heard others discussing it. It already had a semi-cult-like following.

I wanted to know what I was missing out on.

So I read it.

And I didn't really get what the fuss was all about. So much so, that this many years later, I couldn't remember what the story was about.

All I could remember was 42 and the infamous towel and being invisible by shutting one's eyes.

That's not much to go on. That's not much of an endorsement.

And then I learned that my daughter would be reading this as a school assignment. That meant that it was a perfect time to reread it.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

With this being an assignment for her class, it was likely that she would be reading it in a predetermined schedule. And so it was.

And so it was that she finished reading it before I did. But I finished it soon enough.

Not soon enough to avoid her nagging me about it.

But finish I did. And now I know what the story is about. Unfortunately, it didn't impress me much more this time than it did the first time.

Well, wait a minute. It did impress me more...

...just not in an overwhelmingly positive way.

See, it has taken me over four weeks to force myself to finish this post. Not to finish the book. Just to post about it.

That's a pretty bad endorsement in my world.

Maybe this is just one of those rights is passage that we science nerds must traverse.

Maybe.

And my daughter? She freely admits she's a science nerd, but she didn't love it any more than I did.

Can someone explain to me what everyone seems to love about this book?

Is it the dichotomy between having advanced technology and yet getting only an answer to which we don't know the question?

What is it???

Please help!

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