I have a rather large collection of books. Not as vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big as space, but I still think it’s pretty neat. At one point, I kept a spreadsheet of all of my books, and I think that I’d hit about 500. I’ve got more now. They’re all packed in boxes in alphabetical order, awaiting the construction of my library in the currently desolate, concrete-floored front room of my perpetually under renovation house. And since they’re packed in alphabetical order, I thought that might be the best way to share them.
Douglas Adams is the first author in my first box; incidentally, he’s also the author of one of my favorite books of all time, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He had such a unique way of looking at the world.
I still remember the first time I read the Hitchhiker’s Guide. I was in high school, sprawled on my bed, probably avoiding doing something else by sticking my nose in a book. I was so enraptured that when I finished the book, I turned it over, looked at the cover for a long moment, and then started reading it again from the beginning.
For anyone unfamiliar, the story starts with the destruction of the Earth and goes from there.
There have been versions of the Guide in print, in radio, in film, and each of them definitively contradicts the others. This fact bothered Douglas Adams not at all, which means it bothers me not at all.
I think it’s one of the great injustices of the universe that he died at only 49 years old. He could have done so much more. The man even made an essay about having to wear shorts to school as kid into a hilariously memorable read. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I recommend his collected essays and short stories in The Salmon of Doubt.
Rating: 42/10
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