This is probably my top book of all time. I read it at 14, and it blew me away, it still does everytime I read it. I adore Douglas Adams, and am so sad that his death deprives of us a genuinely witty, original and fantastic writer.

My favourite bits from his books:
The Babel fish / Marvin the Paranoid Android / Flaming Zarquon!

This is the film tie-in version, which includes interviews with all the main actors, directors etc.

HHGG websites
Official Movie Website
Douglas Adam's H2G2 Website (now owned / hosted by BBC)
Movie Trailer (courtsey of Amazon)
Radio 4 HHGG Series

Lending this to Allison, who's a member of my Zurich bookgroup. We're discussing Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy on May 26th. Maybe Alison will join and write a journal here :-)

Zurich Bookgroup: May 27th 2005
Corinne, Delyth, Mehdi, Tania, Emily, Savino, Monica & I all met at Muenz Bar, and sat outside on 2 big tables, fighting off all the swiss people desperate to nick our chairs! (Thanks to Corinne for getting there first and valiantly claiming our reserved tables). It was a perfect evening, warm, lots of drinks, and the added entertainment of belly dancers :-)

The book choice was a good one, everyone seemed to have read and loved HHGG at some point in their lives, and it wasn't really a very heated discussion! Our favourite characters were Arthur Dent (for his insistence on getting a nice cup of tea!), Marvin, Zaphod, Slartibartfast, Trillian, the Sperm Whale - Did I miss anyone?

We agreed that Douglas Adams had brilliant ideas, but that as a novel, the plot and the story were probably non-existent. The discussion then included questions on life, the universe and everything and included such diverse topics as "do you believe in aliens?", "Are we really alone?" and "Does the babel fish really start wars?"

I had a great evening, thanks everyone for coming!
Next group: June 16th for "The Time Traveller's Wife"

Report by KatColorado

This was our book of the May Bookgroup Meeting. There were Helen, who was organizing it, Savino and Moni, who were there for the first time, Delyth, Emily, Mehdi, Tania and I.

It seems everybody liked the book, though in a different way. Helen and Delyth were teenagerfans, which means they read it when they were about 15 and just keep on loving it. Emily, Mehdi and I read it as adults and liked it now. But I do think there's a difference when you read it later on, the love is probably not as tight. I don't remember when the others first read it.

We talked about our favourite characters, I picked the Sperm Whale, our favourite parts, I took of course the poetry bit and about the film, whether it's possible to film such a complex and vivid book at all. Well, we will find out soon, some of us very soon, aka tonight ;-))

I enjoyed this meeting a lot, the weather was an extra bonus, because we could sit outside and the waitresses were a lot more civilized than last time. I'm already looking forward to the next one on June 16th.