The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

We often hear recruitment ad’s say that they want people who think out of the box, creative thinkers, etc etc. Well, if you want a crash course in the subject or are a fan of out of the box thinking you should get your hands on this amazing book called “The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.

You might have heard about the “Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy”, which is only one part out of the “Ultimate …..guide”, since it has been made into a movie. Now while I haven’t seen the movie myself I don’t think any movie could do justice to his style of writing. I do plan to watch the movie at the first opportunity I get. But I seriously recommend this book.

I went crazy with this book. I mean he can take the most mundane fact and create a whole new dimension to it. For example, more often than not, when we book a table at a restaurant we turn up much later than the time we specify. He takes this to the extreme of saying that the time we specify is the exact time that we will not turn up at the restaurant and hence became the basis for metaphysical calculations that should take place on a waiter’s notebook. Or mice being the most intelligent species on earth and they are actually observing us while leading us to believe that we are observing them. Ok. I am getting ahead of the story here.

Basically the book revolves around a book (please note the irony here) called the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. DON’T PANIC is printed in bold on the cover page because you would probably only refer to the book when you run into trouble on your inter stellar travels. Inter stellar travel. Mr. Arthur Dent is the lone survivor of the demolition of earth for an Inter Galactic Hyper pass and is thrust into this journey with a humanoid alien life form.

The story line itself is vague and contradicts itself in places. So if you are the kind who likes a well defined story line and slow build up of facts and figures to a definite conclusion you shouldn’t really consider this book. You would find it a waste of money. But if you are looking to expand your horizons of thought and are ready to laugh at the idiosyncrasies of the human race, pick up your copy the next time you see it in a book store.