By: Douglas Adams
Published: 1979
Audiobook Read by: Stephen Fry
My rating: SPECTACULAR
Entry from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy:
Earth: Harmless
Arthur Dent is quite fond of his home. He's lived there for a long time. The council wants to knock it down to make room for a bypass. Arthur is not going to let them. Besides, what's with the bypass anyway?
What Arthur doesn't know is it doesn't really matter. His house and belongings are about to be destroyed anyway by the Vogon Constructor Fleet to make room for the new hyperspatial express route. Oh yes, they'll destroy the entire earth along with Arthur's house. So, Arthur might just as well go along to the pub with Ford to have a pint or three.
Now Ford Prefect was one of Arthur's best friends and hailed from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. He has been stranded on Earth for the past fifteen years. Of course he has used the time wisely to update the entry on Earth in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy since that is his job. Arthur doesn't know all this about Ford and just thinks of him as a rather strange person whom, for some strange reason, he rather likes.
However, Arthur was now quite disliking Ford for coaxing him away from lying in front of a bulldozer to go to the pub, since the bulldozer had now quite knocked over his house! Before he knows what he's doing, he discovers himself running down the road towards his demolished house and ending up on a spaceship headed for who knows where! (A spaceship!?!? Where did that come from?) (Oh yes, the Vogon Constructor Fleet.) (What is a Vogon anyway?)
To say Arthur was having a bad day would be putting it mildly. His house has been bulldozed, (along with the whole rest of the Earth), he's muddy and sore, has been nearly killed by bad poetry, (not to mention being thrown out an airlock by a shouting Vogon), lost both legs and one arm, been subjected to a long walk with a manically depressed robot named Marvin, and to top it all off; he doesn't even know where his towel is! Yes Arthur is having a bad day. So imagine how it felt to be told that mice have been running the Earth! (MICE!?!? What on earth have mice got to do with anything?) Let's sum up how Arthur feels right about now: "Look, would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?"
This was an awesome book chock full of so much crazy off the wall fun I am very tempted to just turn around and listen to it again right now! I loved it!! I have never laughed so much at a book before. The complete absurdity of it was great! Maybe it's an unfortunate testament to my mental state but I just don't care! :) Douglas Adams is the top of the list in my book for having the most amazing imagination and the greatest sense of humor! I suppose if you are looking for a deep and meaningful tome filled with wise sayings and philosophical wonders that explains the answer to life, the universe and everything, you'll probably be disappointed. Oh wait, this book does tell you the answer to life, the universe and everything!! You won't like it but it's there! :)
I listened to the audiobook read by Stephen Fry. I loved Stephen's performance just as much as the book itself! He obviously had fun with it and did an absolutely superb job bringing it to life!
Overall, if you want an irreverent, absolutely hilarious look at humanity and the insignificance of our existence, this is the book for you. (But please cut Marvin some slack, he's depressed.) So in the words of Zaphod Beeblebrox, president of the galaxy, "OK baby, hold tight! We'll take in a quick bite at the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe."
Updated Entry from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy:
Earth: Mostly Harmless
