Posts Tagged ‘douglas adams’

Mostly Harmless is the fifth and final novel written by Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy triology.

The first couple of books wrapped everything up in a beautiful circle. Since then, it has taken various plot devices to keep the story going and explain how the Earth is back again. Mostly Harmless gets back to good old-fashioned science fiction which still maintaining the dry humour of the series.

Also, I’m sold on being the sandwich maker on Lamuella. Sounds lik a good life. That said, it was more difficult to follow what was going on than previous books. But definitely worth a read if you like Douglas Adams.

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is the fourth novel in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. It follows on from Life, the Universe, and Everything and forms the fourth part of the trilogy in five parts.

It is very different from the previous novels. Which are science fiction. This is a romance story. With a few aliens thrown in but only at the end. Still an enjoyable read and a good addition to the series. And the rain good is good, too.

Life, the Universe, and Everything is the third novel in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. It tells the story of the robots of Krikkit and their attempt to destroy the universe.

It’s a great read filled with fun characters like Agrajag. Not fun for Agrajag, of course, but they’re not real so it’s fine. It does feel like an add-on to the originals, though. The first two novels wrap up nicely and this has to invent a whole new series of events to get the science fiction back on track. But it does and it’s entertaining.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is a novel by Douglas Adams and a sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Like the first, it roughly follows the radio series but with more detail. It’s laugh-out-loud funny in parts and a fun read.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a novel by Douglas Adams. Of course, you almost certainly knew that already. The type of people who read me blog and the type of people who like h2g2 almost certainly have a strong cross-over.

I’ve never actually read the novel because I was worried it would deviate too much from the radio series (the original and presumably best) and so I put off reading it. Now that I have, it is actually very similar to the radio series and basically the same story. But still worth a re-read.

Pandas get a bad rap. They don’t mate at the best of times. They spend all of their time eating bamboo, which tends to kill their sex drive. And comments to the effective of it being their own fault that they are endangered are common.

Here is Ricky Gervais making just such a point:

But this is unfair. And best explained by this Douglas Adams lecture that took place at the University of California.

You have probably noticed that pandas are massive. They don’t have many predators. Even humans, who sit here in the food chain, don’t eat them. So they don’t die very often.

And Mother Nature is pretty smart. Well, dumb, but nevertheless, natural selection works it out in the end. So, when you have a species with no real predators, they don’t procreate very often because otherwise there would be too many of them. They are designed to have very few babies.

Then humans come along, destroy most of the natural habitat and wonder why pandas cannot replace themselves fast enough.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a novel by Douglas Adams. It is the second book in his Dirk Gently series.

I tried reading the novel a few decades ago and never got very far, so it was nice to make a fresh (and successful attempt). In between a saw the BBC TV series, which was fairly entertaining.

I was so-so on the novel. The humour and wordplay was very good. I found myself laughing at several points. However, I was not as much of a fan of the story line. Why are gods suddenly wandering around? It seemed an odd combination of fantasy, detective and humour. It was okay, but no h2g2.

The May edition of Sunday Assembly Leeds was hosted by Dr Chris Hassall on the theme of “nature”. It was also Towel Day so Chris ensured we got plenty of Douglas Adams in there – always a good addition!