The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is composite of anecdotal stories mostly coming from the current edition of the guide carried by Ford Prefect that are interspersed through a larger story of the events surrounding the main characters of Ford, Arthur, and Zaphod. Ford Prefect a galactic hitchhiker who is working on updating the guide but became stuck on Earth for fifteen years. While on Earth he befriends Arthur Dent and plucks him from the Earth just before it is destroyed to make way for a galactic freeway. Meanwhile Zaphod Beetlebrox and his girlfriend Trillian steal a new starship powered by an improbability drive to find the wealth rumored to be on a planet that most people in the galaxy regard as a myth. Along the way, they improbably pick up Ford and Arthur just after the two are dumped into open space.
The main tale surrounding the four most prominent characters is full of one improbable event after another possibly due to the fact that their ship is powered by an improbability drive, but still for me, I didn't find it very credible; however, the hilarity of the interspersed tales and the chronically depressed robot Marvin more than makes up for the oddities of the main events. Overall I laughed often and enjoyed the book immensely. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a humorous read and will most likely continue with the rest of the books when I find myself in need of a good laugh.
Here from 52 Books in 52 Weeks (I'm participating through GoodReads). I love Douglas Adams! Besides the Hitchhiker's Guide books, he has a nonfiction book I really liked called Last Chance to See, about traveling the world to see endangered species. I recommend it.
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