a book
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams · 2005 · 285 pages
SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES • Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien.
After that, things get much, much worse.
With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover.
Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.
Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .
recommended by 26 people
sourced from public statements
Naval Ravikant
“Matt Ridley, Neal Stephenson, Taleb, Borges, Ted Chiang, Anthony DeMello, Osho, J Krishnamurti, Harari, Asimov, Bradbury, Greg Egan, Feynman, Schrödinger, Bohr, Chris Alexander, the Durants, Darwin, Adam Smith, David Deutsch, Karl Popper, Douglas Hofstader, Douglas Adams”↗
Elon Musk
“I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and basically what Douglas Adams was saying is: we don't really know what the right questions are to ask. The question is not "What's the meaning of life?" [...] In that book, which is really sort of an existential philosophy book disguised as as humor, they come to the conclusion that the real problem is trying to formulate the question. And to really have the right question you need a much bigger computer than earth. I think one way of characterizing this would be: The universe is the answer. What are the questions? The more we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness the better we can understand what questions to ask about the answer that is the universe. The more we expand consciousness to become a multi-planet species and ultimately a multi-stellar species, the more we have a chance of figuring out what the hell is going on.”↗
Peter Thiel
“The geek classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy even explains the founding of our planet as a reaction against salesmen.”
Chuck Wendig
“@MommaJenks I’ve read the books multiple times myself!”↗
Brian Quinn
“All time favorite books - Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. Drawing Of The Three. Currently reading Pet Sematary for the 100th time. And a history of magic called Hiding The Elephant.”↗
Seth Rogen
“I love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.”↗
Fredrik Backman
“This was one of the first books that made me understand it was okay for literature to be silly and funny and stupid and hilarious. I assume that this life-altering experience at age 10 or 11 still shows in my writing today.”↗
Kevin Folta
“@Clear_Food @JANEMCARTHUR11 @CAPE_ACME @intotheweedsdoc One of my favorite books.”↗
Charlie Brooker
“I saw the BBC TV adaptation in the early 80s, then gobbled up all the books one-by-one. This was the perfect mix of Pythonesque humour and intergalactic road movie, fizzing with ideas and never taking itself remotely seriously.”↗
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