I don't think it's particularly obvious from the picture, but number 5 was The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
This was chosen because it was kicking about in the OH's bookshelves and I was too ill at the time to contemplate going to the library to get something else from line five of the poster. The fact that we have it in the house argues for me having read it before, and I probably have,, but long enough since to have forgotten large swathes of it, as well as to realise that some of the things I remember from the original radio series didn't make it to the book.
What struck me very much, as it didn't at the time, was how totally original and inventive DA was. I think back then I took it all for granted but there are so many interesting and wildly funny concepts here; the guide itself, a literary pre-cursor to the Internet, Marvin the paranoid android, lab mice actually being the ones who run the experiments etc etc And so many everyday phrases born from this; brain the size of a planet, so long and thanks for all the fish, 42, and of course Don't Panic.
It is occasionally just a bit too insistently clever and self consciously funny which can be a bit wearing if read in large chunks, but that doesn't detract from the overall experience.
Verdict on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - A hit.
I so want to buy an ELECTRIC MONK (from one of the later books) to give with Robbie the robot Vacuum a friend but neither Curry's nor John Lewis stock them. Shame. The concept of a household appliance that handles all your beliefs for you whilst you get on with life is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI have always regarded Marvin as one of my main heroes in life. Andre's comment above makes me wonder if I ought to similar idolise an Electric Monk . . .
ReplyDeleteThe more expensive versions can hold multiple conflicting beliefs simultaneously.. worth paying the extra.
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