The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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Book Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


Subtitle: "A Novel"


Author(s): Douglas Adams


Publishing Year: 1979


Review:

 This book is a mixture of science fiction, and comedy. It’s full of amusing bits, irony, jokes, and interesting parts. The main story is this; Arthur Dent is trying to keep his house from getting bulldozed (it was in the way of where a bypass was going to be built), when the Earth is destroyed to build a hyperspace bypass. In a hurry, his best friend Ford (who happens to be an alien, and who’s a researcher for the informative book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), whisks him off the planet; but not before making sure that they both know where their towels are.

Together, and with a few other people they meet along the way (the girl that Arthur failed to ask out, the crazed President of the Galaxy, and a manically depressed robot), they go in search of the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Because they need the question, not the answer. They know the answer. It’s 42. They’re now just wondering what question would go to that answer that would actually be meaningful at all.

This book ends kind of abruptly, but the story is quickly picked up in the next novel in the five-book trilogy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Favorite Part(s):

1. I loved the part where Trillian realizes that the probability is the telephone number of where she met Arthur.
2. Any part where Marvin is being all depressed is very funny; his depression becomes quite a useful tool for them.
3. Zaphod is a crazy guy. I like when he was talking about how he injured his brain; I’ve not yet finished reading the series, and I hope the other books shed some light on why he did that.
4. The bowl of petunias…and all the other little bits that are small stories about very interesting and funny things that have happened that nobody has been able to predict or prevent.

Additional Notes:

The only thing I can think to add is, I don't think you've really read science-fiction until you've read this book. It's just an amazing book, and it warps every way you will ever look at the universe (or a bowl of petunias).

The movie is pretty close to the book, but with The Guide, I don't really compare the books to the movie/radio program/TV series or anything else that came out of or preceded it. They're all their own entities, and all are great mixtures of awesome.

Dragons and Dreams

Here's my first post about an actual book; it'll introduce you to what type of format I'll be using to blog about each book.

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Book Title: Dragons and Dreams

Subtitle: "A collection of new fantasy and science fiction stories"

Author(s): Bruce Coville, Sharon Webb, Patricia McKillip, Patricia MacLachlan, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint, Diana Wynne Jones, Monica Hughes, and Diane Duane.

Publishing Year: 1986

Review: 

    There are just so many good things about this book! I think the only place that you can get them is on Amazon.com, but there might be other places where this book is for sale. It's been out of print for a while, so I was lucky to come across it.

This is a book of short stories (as stated in the subtitle), and there are ten of them. I know when I picked up the book I noticed how many good authors participated in writing this. I know that Bruce Coville is pretty popular, and I like Jane Yolen's stories, and Zilpha Keatly Snyder's. Diane Duane is one of my favorite authors, and you'll probably see more of her books on this blog sometime in the future. :)

The stories in this book are clever, and often amusing. One of them seems almost entirely pointless, and most are meaningful with either a good moral, or a really sweet ending.

There's a story about a boy who guards a mysterious wooden box, a story about a monster that eats those who have recently eaten chocolate. There's one about a baby hag who can't find a name, and a great-grandfather dragon telling his grandkids the history of the Dragon's Thanksgiving. There's the story of a girl who can't dream a good dream for her fans, and a story of two kids who ride the New York subway system to find alternate universes.

Each story is amazing and well-written, all of them inspire a sense of imagination. I'd really reccommend reading this book, if you could find a copy. I know there are a few hanging around somewhere...

Favorite Part(s): Haha, wow... It's hard to choose a favorite story out of these. But I particularly liked "Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale" by Jane Yolen, and Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream" by Diana Wynne Jones. Diane Duane's "Uptown Local" was also one of my favorites from this book; it was a really intriguing tale.

Additional Notes: None really that I can think of. It's a good read. I like short-story books because you can read one story, and then let it sit until you feel like reading again, and continue like that. It's a very relaxing way of reading.

Just an introduction to what this is all about...

Hello, and welcome to my newly created blog!

I've wanted to start a book-blog for some time, where I review books that I enjoy, but I noticed that many of the books I read are not of the ordinary sort. The books that really draw me in, the best books I've read, are all many years older than me, and mostly out of print (except for rare few).

I'm going to blog about books, but instead of blogging about "that new book that just came out" or "this recently published author that you just have to read"; I'm going to pull out the old books, and show you that it's not just the new books that can be amazing.

(My definition of 'old book' is any book that came out before the year 1990. I know that it doesn't seem that old, but I haven't been around that long, so it's older than I am.)

I have more than 200 books that fall into that category, and I've only read about half of them! So this'll give me a chance to read through the books I haven't yet, and write about them here.

I hope to get started pretty soon, as soon as I finish the book I'm reading right now. :)