Douglas Adams, almost a hero for me. (Douglas Adams in general)

Member Name: R_Easton

Product:	Douglas Adams in general
Date:	10/10/01 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Greatest Author Ever

Disadvantages: Will write no more.

I first heard of Douglas Adams' death when I saw it in the paper. They had given him a very small section, one column and about thirty lines. I actually gave a minutes silence almost automatically after seeing the headline.

Douglas Adams was almost a hero for me, as I enjoyed all his books. I would often learn things about the way he felt and thought about things, and it would sometimes scare me. I can say ‘I never really got the hang of Thursdays’ without it being a pure quote as I really do have trouble with Thursdays. It is the worst day of my week often. I also agree with many of his beliefs, on reading ‘Last Chance to See’ I agreed at every turn.

The Hitch-Hikers Guide has influenced me more than any other book, and I must confess that my friends and I look out for the number forty-two everywhere, just so that we can shout forty-two at the top of our voices. I have found it in many strange places. I have read the book (and it’s four sequels) many times and it is still enjoyable. The only ‘black spot in his writing I find is the T.V version of the HHG. This just wasn’t as enjoyable as the book/radio series.

The Hitch-Hikers Guide, Douglas tells was thought up whilst lying in a field in Innsbruck, Austria in 1971. He was Hitchhiking in Europe with a copy of ‘The Hitch-Hikers Guide to Europe’ by Ken Walsh. He at this point thought of the idea that someone should write a ‘Hitch-Hikers guide to the Galaxy’ and then he would be straight away to follow the advice. He then forgot about it completely for six years. In this you could say that Ken Walsh was responsible for the writing of the book.

The other books were also all great, none as good as HHG. The one that was the most different to it was Last Chance to See. This, far from being ‘The Ends of the Earth’ (the original name for HHG) was about endangered species. He travelled the wo
rld looking for rare animals with Mark Carwardine, including White Rhinos, Yangtze Dolphins and the strange Aye-Aye a Madagascan lemur. This book I highly recommend as it has some very thought-provoking comments.

So long, and thanks for all the fish,
for Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001), a great author.

If you are intrested in finding more Douglas Adams online, you could try these links:
ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha fan club -
http://www.zz9.org/

BBC HHG site -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/index.sh tml

Douglas Adams website -
http://www.douglasadams.com/

(the last link also has a java version of the original 1984 text RPG based on HHGG)

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