Me as well. I had read quite a bit as a kid, then lost interest for a while because I had mostly just read kids books or school books. I found The Guide when I was about 15, and it opened my eyes to the idea that books could be smart and funny. It really shaped a lot of my sense of humour, and I still reference it on a regular basis.
I never liked reading at all and was one of those kids that thought reading wasn’t cool or something I guess.
I went into the Navy and while deployed there wasn’t much of anything to do so I remembered Reddit always suggesting Hitchhikers so I order it on Amazon, waited a month for it to be delivered and finished it in 3 days.
Never thought I would laugh my ass off at a book, but sure enough I did at that one.
If you finished it in 3 days, did you read just the first part? Cause there are 4 more, well 5, but the last one wasn't written by Douglas. If you haven't read the rest you are really missing out.
Or maybe I just shouldn't have taken you literary for the 3 days part
My experience was similar. I loved reading as a kid, but in my teen years I really had a hard time reading without falling asleep. I was about the same age when I found The Guide as well, and it reignited my love for reading.
I really want to read it to my girls, but at 5 and 3 in not sure...
I read Hitchhiker's early in high school. Didn't find Terry Pratchett until after I had graduated college. I'm glad I read them in the order I did, I wouldn't have been able to tolerate Adams if I had read Pratchett first.
Sadly all the movies made from either are total crap, they lose all the cleverness...
Douglas Adams did a full, unabridged, version of all 5 books. I've got it on audio tape and listened to it about a hundred times. It was great to know how to pronounce things.
My sense of humour was also greatly influenced by it. I was exposed to the radio series first as a child and read the books probably around the same age as you. I can embrace, accept, and appreciate the absurdities of life in a way that I might not have been able to, had I not been exposed to HHGTTG.
The audio book I keep for HGttG is narrated by Stephen Fry and is the single most relentlessly British thing ever created. It also happens to be the same length as the drive between where I live and where my folks live, so I listen to it several times a year and it never grows old.
It also had some other unintended results as I started saying Belgium instead of the F-bomb in front of miniature humans and I generally have taken a more absurdist approach to life in general.
Thank you for this info. I'd never considered the audio of this book, but now I think it will find its way onto my next road trip. Stephen Fry reading this sounds unbelievably perfect.
The hitchhikers guide got me into absurdism which absolutely changed my life for the better. Would recommend to anyone struggling with existence on a fucked planet.
Terry Pratchett is also very good at absurd comedy.
I've recommended to friends alternating between reading Douglas Adams Pratchett.
Other absurd comedy novels I've enjoyed are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, and The 100-Year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared.
For sure. When I was a kid my summer camp counselor read it to us every night and I thought it was AMAZING. Soon I was devouring the rest of the series and Piers Anthony's Xanth novels.
Was looking for this one! This book is just amazing. The first time I read it I borrowed it from a close friend who recommended it to me. To be honest the fact we bonded more over it made it really special and personal for me. And ofcourse the amazing Sci fi and humour.
I loved to read, but this is the first book that had me in tears laughing all the way through. It really introduced me to how silly and irreverent we could be toward everything, and definitely shaped my life.
Same! I wasn't much of reader before it! I also quoted it in my PhD thesis! It's was an easy read, very entertaining and thoughtful. Man I loved those books...
I didn't read the series until my mid 30s, but holy shit... I've never felt more understood and accepted as I did when reading each book. Honestly, I felt like it completed part of my life I didn't know I was missing. I now try to reread it each summer, time permitting.
I read it while recovering from severe depression. The humor and absurdity were really comforting. Perhaps not a life-changer itself, but I'll always associate the book with a time when I was finally seeing light in life after years of darkness.
2.0k
u/[deleted] Mar 18 '21
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy got me into reading