The ultimate hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

Now before I start talking business some general updates :) 

The kid does not let me go close to any electronic device- laptops , smart phones ,even epilators and hair dryers are out of bounds . Hence I am slack in blogging and am a bit on and off  social networking ( which I must confess I am quite liking- really better than being constantly hooked on to fb. The phone does feel lighter ever since I uninstalled the app. Yes I uninstall apps I don't use much hence goodbye fb app) 

Work had been crazy busy for a month with me clocking literally full days(I need not since I work part time) Things do look a bit better on that front as well(touch wood). I was rewarded with an extra day of holiday which I feel is awesome . You see I loveeeeee not going to work :)

Now before I keep on drifting back to the book -  the ultimate guide to survive the galaxy . I had this book on my radar ever since I heard about it which was some 3 years back ( maybe before that I was living in the Congo basin) Now this is the ultimate guide - all the 5 books of the trilogy . And 2 total waste of spaces in the shape of 2 novellas. 

The series centres around Arthur Dent a very 'mango' person from planet earth, his extra terrestrial friend Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox - president of the galaxy and Trillian again an earthling. The story starts with the destruction of earth for the construction of an inter galactic expressway . Arthur is saved by Ford and they are able to hitch a ride in the space ship of the Vogons(residents of another planet) 

A roller coaster ride ensues which borders at insane . It is so insane that it is utterly hilarious. Book 1 - which is the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy is my favourite. 

The next instalment is the Restaurant at the end of the Universe. Here end is end in time rather than space which is mostly the norm . So rather than being a restaurant at the border of the universe it is a restaurant at the border of the existence of the universe. The author plays around with a lot of space time travel which is funny in parts and totally baffling in others.

Book three which is Life, Universe and Everything was honestly filled with a lot of technicality . I was loosing the plot though ardent 'hitchikers' claim to it being the best. It had Arthur Dent trying to save the universe from the crazy Krikkit robots. It was very funny in portions but some parts were too OTT. I was waiting for it to get over. On second thoughts maybe it warrants another read for better understanding and more laughs. 

It did get over and So Long and thanks for all the Fish brought Arthur back on earth. He even got to meet a pretty lady which was so Big Bang Theory-ish.  The book was vivid , very funny and minus a lot of gibberish . All the space talk in the preceding books does make a normal average intellect person like me go squint eyed. This book on Terra firma was sweet and enjoyable. 

Mostly Harmless is well mostly harmless. :) it takes us wayyyyy into the future where lot of things have fallen into place or so we think. It's like a little epilogue to the whole journey. 

I can not complete the review without some excerpts from the book: 

"You know," said Arthur,"It's at times like this, when i'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and  about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I's listened to what my mother told me when I was young." "Why ,what did she tell you?" "I don't know, I did'nt listen"

:P :P 

Number Two's eyes narrowed and became what are known in the Shouting and Killing people trade as cold slits, the idea presumably being to give your opponent the impression that you have lost your glasses or are having difficulty keeping awake. Why this is frightening is  an, as yet, unresolved problem.

He was staring at the instruments with the air of one who is trying to convert Fahrenheit to centigrade in his head while his house is burning down.

(LOL :D)

Just as a slow series of clicks  when speeded up will lose the definition of each individual click and gradually take on the quality of a sustained and rising tone, so a series of individual impressions here took on the quality of a sustained emotion - and yet not an emotion.If it was an emotion, it was totally emotionlessone. It was hatred, implacable hatred.It was cold, not like ice is cold, but like a wall is cold. It was impersonal, not like a randomly flung fist in the crowd is impersonal, but like a computer issues parking summons is impersonal. and it was deadly, again,not like a bullet or a knife is deadly, but like a brick wall across an expressway is deadly.

Hmm :) I liked that piece a lot :) 

He had read somewhere that the Eskimos had over two hundred different words for snow, without which their conversation would probably have got very monotonous. So they would distinguish between thin snow and thick snow,light snow and heavy snow,sludgy snow ,brittle snow, snow that came in flurries, snow that came in drifts, snow that came in on the bottom of your neighbor's boots all over your nice clean igloo floor, the snows of winter, the snows of spring, the snows you remember from your childhood that were so much better than any of your modern snow, fine snow, feathery snow, hill snow, valley snow,snow that falls in the morning, snow that falls at night, snow that falls all of a sudden just when you were going out fishing, and snow that despite all your efforts to train them, the huskies have pissed on.

"Search me buster," said the creature."As I said, I'm new here. Life is entirely strange to me. What's it like?" Here was something that Ford felt he could about with authority. "Life," he said,"is like a grapefruit." "Er, how so?""Well,it's sort of orangy yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in themiddle. It's got pips inside too. Oh,and some people have half a one for breakfast".

The author's humour is dry and outlandish is nt it?

Give the series a try if geeky humour might be up your street. Book 1 would surely win you over. The curve might start falling down with 2 and 3 if you find it all  too obscure. Might as well jump over to book 4 and 5 for good 'earthy' fun.Don't worry the plot is not lost if you chose to skip the other books - its like a sitcom , they tie in together but then each episode is an entity in itself :)