The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 0330258648 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingDavros-10wing of Banyo, Queensland Australia on 8/6/2007
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5 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingDavros-10wing from Banyo, Queensland Australia on Monday, August 6, 2007
The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy is the first of the five books in the Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series, (described on the cover of the fifth book as "the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy", which gives an accurate description of the humour in the series), by Douglas Adams. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams''s radio series of the same name. The novel was first published in London in October 1979 and consistently ranks in the Internet Book List Top 30 list of books.

The novel takes its name from The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy, a fictional guide book for hitchhikers (based on the Hitch-hiker''s Guide to Europe) written in the form of an encyclopedia.

The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy is the most popular known reference work in the Milky Way, for two reasons: it is inexpensive, and it has the words Don''t Panic written on it in large, friendly letters on its cover. It is a galactic bestseller everywhere except on the backward planet Earth, where they still think digital watches are "a pretty neat idea." Ford Prefect is a field correspondent for the Guide stationed on Earth and fully aware that the Guide has forgotten about him. His best friend is the unassuming Earthling Arthur Dent. His boring life in the West Country is changed one morning when city contractors pull up to his house in order to demolish it to make way for a bypass. After making a quick diversion and travelling to a local bar, Ford alerts him that he, Ford, is actually from a planet somewhere near Betelgeuse and that they have to get off the planet before it''s demolished. Indeed, an alien race of bureaucrats called Vogons intend to destroy Earth to make way for a "hyperspace bypass".

After escaping onto one of the Vogons'' ships with seconds to spare via hitchhiking, and then being read Vogon poetry (the third worst in the known Universe) as a form of torture for sneaking onto the Vogon ship, Arthur and Ford are thrown into open space. They are inadvertently picked up seconds before asphyxiation by the Heart of Gold, a ship which was stolen (as opposed to launched) by President of the Galaxy (in a government unheard of on Earth) Zaphod Beeblebrox, who happens to be Ford''s semi-cousin. The ship is piloted by Zaphod and Trillian, whom Arthur once met at a party, and attended to by clinically depressed android Marvin. Ford and Arthur learn of Zaphod''s immediate intentions for the ship: finding the legendary lost planet of Magrathea, which supposedly built luxury planets. When they do, Arthur meets an old resident, Slartibartfast, who tells him some rich clients (known to humans as mice, which are three-dimensional representations of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings that only had representatives on Earth to monitor its progress; the mice in question were in fact thought by Trillian to be her pets, though if anything the case was the opposite) have reawoken the Magratheans from cryosis for one more job. The planet to build is Earth Mark II, to replace the now demolished Earth Mark I, which the Magratheans built not as a planet but an organic supercomputer to calculate the Question, not the Answer, to Life, the Universe and Everything. The Answer is already known to the mice. As Deep Thought told them, the Answer is 42, but this only makes sense if the Question is known. Earth was, in fact, demolished five minutes before the Question was calculated.

The mice explain it will take too long to wait another ten million years for Earth II to produce the Question when, as a last-generation organic byproduct of the computer''s matrix, they could simply find the Question imprinted in Arthur''s brainwaves. Of course, they have to kill him and remove his brain, prepare it and dice it. Fortunately, a distraction is caused by way of the Galactic police, who come to arrest Zaphod for theft. Before the four of them are killed by the police in the chase, the officers'' life support is cut off and they die. Back at the Heart of Gold, they find Marvin, their savior—he had plugged his external feed into the policecraft''s input port and uploaded his horribly depressing views on life. The craft responded by committing suicide, in an act that took the on-board life support system with it.

Zaphod decides to take the Heart of Gold to the restaurant Milliways, and their story continues in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Journal Entry 2 by wingDavros-10wing at Controlled Release in Lutwyche, Queensland Australia on Friday, August 10, 2007

Released 16 yrs ago (8/10/2007 UTC) at Controlled Release in Lutwyche, Queensland Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to the organisers of ABC2007 for attendees'' goodie bags so I can participate vicariously if not in person.

Also released for the 2007 Never Judge A Book By Its Cover Release Challenge: Week 31 (Anything Goes).

Journal Entry 3 by MelbCon from Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia on Monday, September 24, 2007
Gratefully received, to be released at the convention in October. Thanks from the convention committee.

Journal Entry 4 by Lytteltonwitch from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Plan to theme release this one into a geocache

Journal Entry 5 by Lytteltonwitch at Geocache release in Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Friday, June 6, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (6/6/2008 UTC) at Geocache release in Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

This geocache needed a clue from this book and therefore decided it was the perfect place to leave the book. It was a bit big to put into the cache but has been tucked up nicely beside it.

he Christchurch bookcrossers meet up on a regular basis,the information is on BCNZ Yahoo NZ The main organizers are FutureCat and myself and we welcome new members to our very friendly group.

Journal Entry 6 by Haldane1 from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Saturday, November 1, 2008
Found the book in a geocache in Cashmere. We'll put it in another geocache for someone else to enjoy...

CAUGHT IN CHRISTCHURCH CANTERBURY NEW ZEALAND

Journal Entry 7 by wingAnonymousFinderwing on Sunday, May 3, 2009
Found at Tasty Baking Geocache, swapped for another bookcrossing book, Stancliffe's Hotel.

CAUGHT IN CHRISTCHURCH CANTERBURY NEW ZEALAND

Journal Entry 8 by wingAnonymousFinderwing on Sunday, May 3, 2009
Found it yesterday in geocache Tasty Baking: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=86143f89-0081-4ab5-810b-cee62976d129 Have handed over to Team HotPJ for moving on.

CAUGHT IN CHRISTCHURCH CANTERBURY NEW ZEALAND

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