I took 15 years to finish reading this book!

Where’s the fun in telling you which book it was?

JK. You need to know this.

Spoilers ahead if you haven’t read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy yet.

The first time I picked up a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I was about 10 years old. And perhaps I wasn’t old enough to understand the humor, because I was still hung up on Enid Blyton back then. But I gave it a good go and made it to up to ‘Yellow’.

Fast forward to 2013, when I had just joined college and chanced upon an epub version. But let me tell you something about digital books – they don’t do you any favors! Unless you have a Kindle, I guess.

Anyway, this time I kept at it and got to the part where Zaphod Beeblebrox steals the spaceship. And in my naiveté, I tried to understand what the Improbability Drive that powered the vehicle was. I also tried to imagine what he looked like with his two heads and three arms. Then I wondered about the six most powerful people in the Universe. So, by the time I was done thinking, I had lost my page and I didn’t want to start over.

The third time I tried to read it, I made it to Magrathea. And this time I actually managed to notice Marvin. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t have a tough time imagining his whiny voice! But oh those smug sounding doors…they really got to me. Don’t you just hate it when they do that?

I can’t recall why I gave up that time, but I did. Let’s leave it at that.

And then I promptly proceeded to forget about it altogether.

A few weeks ago, out of nowhere, my colleagues and I decided to start a book club. Needless to say, we haven’t had our first meeting yet. However, we daringly chose THGTTG as our first excursion. I say daringly, because of the four of us at work, two weren’t recreational readers, I had never managed to make it to the end of part one of the book in over 10 years, and the other was the only person to have actually finished reading it.

And, that’s the story of how I arrived at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe with a Babelfish in a glass bowl.

No, wait. That comes later.

I told myself I would suck it up and read the idiosyncrasies and appreciate the mind boggling brilliance of Douglas Adams. Which is how I made it through the seemingly never ending saga of Arthur Dent.

I would like to state with great specificity that I specifically enjoyed the part where Marvin has an enlightening conversation with a mattress. But it only wins by a small margin when compared to the part where Zaphod and Trillian leave behind whatshisface on that whatsitsnameplanet with all the rain and the guy and his cat.

In conclusion, I did not see the part where Arthur flits through the night sky naked coming. But then again, if Ford Prefect had a cleaner towel, he might be dead.

Also what happened to the little green fellow whose mission it was to insult everyone?

Are you not sure what’s happening at this juncture?

Is it unclear what my motive is?

Well to you sir, or madam, I say this!

42!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!