HHGTTG
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, possibly the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Douglas Adams' head. Did this book change my life? I find it astonishing to what degree it did, and how far reaching an effect it had on my young mind.

I first came across a copy of the book when I was 11. It was quite by chance that I had forgotten to bring any books with me for the long flight home, and so I was desperately scouring an airport bookshop full of chicklit and thrillers. I picked up a book for no other reason than the cover interested me. Looking back, it was an incredibly random cover for the book - 42 roughly egg-shaped things floating in a grid with a scenic snow-capped mountain backdrop - I have no idea. I decided it would do.

I was unsure about the book as I first read it. I was used to the ready comedic style of Terry Pratchett and this was far drier - yet it felt good, far more sophisticated, clever, and then the moments that grabbed me, the throwaway lines. Things stuck in my head - digital watches, disused lavatories emblazoned with 'beware of the leopard', Dentrassi underwear and then Marvin, oh Marvin! Slowly but surely I fell completely and utterly head over heels in love. I couldn't stop reading it, I was completely immersed. Suddenly, the book stopped. I went out and bought 'Restaurant', the story continued and I was happy. None of my friends were geeky or at all into science or sci-fi, and so I had my own private world to enjoy. A couple of years later, as my friends had started to read it I felt a pang of sorrow - it was no longer a private world.

My mum was immensely pleased that I liked HHGTTG. She'd heard the radio plays when they'd first been broadcast and raved about them to me. Then, for my 12th birthday she got me the cassettes - the entire series on tape. Not the books read onto tape, but the radio plays as they'd been re-recorded from the original scripts. At first, as with the book, I was dubious. I was so attached to the book that anything different seemed strange, and the plays differed from the books! Horror! But there was something about it, the energy, the madness, the inspired genius that grabbed me. So much freer, so much less constrained than the books, I became obsessed by the radio version. By the time I was 13 I knew the entire thing off by heart, the exact tones and inflections, the pauses beats and awkward stumbles. Now memorised, it was a part of me, it was there, I could use it at will and just be safe in the knowledge that deep in my brain was a part that forever remained trapped between being Arthur and Marvin.

I remember when the news came out of Douglas' death. I was heartbroken, but I still had HHGTTG there and that was enough. Over the years I have met and connected with so many people through a love and knowledge of HHGTTG and it has brought me closer to a group of friends who I love, adore and can have fantastic conversations with on a high intellectual level and on an off-the wall flight of fancy imagination trip level.

Nothing can really convey how I feel about this book. I just phoned to wash my head at you.
( Hampster Squared has stuff at www.tilla.co.uk, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:05, 5 replies)

That is such a similar experience to my own introduction to h2g2
I really felt a kinship with Douglas Adams that I'm sure millions of his readers also felt.

I too, was shocked and upset by his untimely death. Even though I had of course never met him he was, is, mine. Just as I'm sure he is the treasured possesion of all his fans.

reading 'the salmon of doubt' was a heart-breaking experience.
( mictoboy shitting in your cunt since, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:42, closed)

a tragic loss
with him gone and Pratchett ill tis a sad old time.

I took the 5 hhgttg books with me when I was stuck in Brum ona course for 2 weeks, was a joy sitting in a cafe reading them, quietly chuckling to myself every few minutes.

ahhh, the "somebody elses problem" theory brings back glee
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:53, closed)

hmm yeah
One of my most beloved things is my signed copy of Hitchhikers. I picked it up in Hay on Wye a while ago for next to nothing, Doug had just died and I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear when I held it in my hands. When I read it that same afternoon and through the night I felt like I was 12 again. Nothing touches it.
(Suddenly, zebras Safe and sound for eternity, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:57, closed)

Spot on
DG was (is?) one of the very very few authors who speaks to you, personally.

I still get upset when I remember that he's gone.

Apparently, there is a real reason why 42 is a special number, a few people (including Stephen Fry) know why, but were sworn to secrecy.
/conspiracy
( DrPrunesquallor is determined to post more as of, Fri 16 May 2008, 11:24, closed)

The Salmon of Doubt was my choice a few pages back
but yes, H2G2 still retains a place in my heart that nothing will ever replace.

Douglas is still very, very sorely missed in the emvee household.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 16 May 2008, 12:27, closed)