The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I've been a huge fan of the nonsense and laughable scenarios presented in Douglas Adam's great world of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy since I was in middle school. I actually preformed in a play based on the first couple chapters of the book. It was good to hear the radio version now because there are a lot of lines in the book that are very dryly presented. It's important to the humor and it definitely helped push it further into the realm of British dry humor.

I am drawn to this story among other sci-fi novels, not just because of the excellent humor, but for the unconventional plot line. Earth is destroyed and there are only but 2 humans living in the galaxy. Arthur Dent is so wrapped up in how amazing Earth is, but soon finds that the galaxy only knows it as a "Mostly Harmless" planet. In the same way many humans feel strongly about how important or how amazing their country is, Arthur defends Earth even if no one cares.

Blowing up the planet in the first 5 minutes of a book is a bold step to take, most books wait until at least halfway, or have moved past the destruction of the Earth with a new hope. There is no new hope for Arthur, he is but a hitchhiker on a wild adventure tagging along a group of criminals. Most books have a pretty good reason for blowing up the Earth as well, but again, in Douglas Adam's mind, he wanted to explore the idea of the Earth being demolished for the sake of an interstellar bypass. This almost knocks us down a peg as Earth-dwellers, and reminds us we are not that important in the galaxy. I absolutely love that. It's interesting to see the human race as but an evolutionary offspring of a giant, super computer planet, holding "the ultimate question."

It makes sense for such events to happen in the form of a British humor novel. I do recommend the first few books in the series, and only really dive into the last half if you're feeling a deep connection to the characters.