At the moment I'm re-reading (after a gap of twenty years) the collected volumes. One to go... What a wonderful fantasist Douglas Adams was - so imaginative, so clever, so funny. Has anybody else read any of the books? (I have an enviably bad memory when it comes to books. After four or five years I've forgotten the plots and the actions, so I can read them with completely fresh eyes!)

I remember the title. I think my parents had it on a shelf or I could have read it. Was it ever a movie?

Yes it was a movie, and they did quite a good job of transferring the complex fantasy into something almost as bizarre. I watched it on telly just the other week - and I've already forgotten how it ended! The ending of the book I've just read reported God's Final Message to His Creation - a classic of its kind. My wife kept asking me what I was giggling about.

I don't know what that means. I thought it was a philosophical type book/movie. Thought provoking.

Can you surmise?

No, it's not philosophical, Elleise, or particularly thought-provoking. It's a joyous fantasy-romp telling the adventures of an ordinary young Englishman who hitchhikes around an infinite universe, in the company of an irresponsible researcher employed by the editors of The Guide.

It's hard to find any book to compare with what the author calls his "trilogy". Think of a fantastical uber-futuristic multiple-worlds version of Catch-22, and you might get a vague idea of its style.

I remember hitchhiker's guide to the universe. Loved it.

Jana. Feel free to improve my description of it to Elleise! I pulled that off the top of my head, and I may have misrepresented the book(s).

It's been so long Gordon...You did a great job!

hi Gordon, I remember this series. I read it back in the mid 90s. I LOVED it!! And on occasion, I find myself saying "So long, and thanks for the fish." LOL!!!!

But no, I don't remember it AT all HA HA!

Hi Deanna. Yes, isn't that one of the best titles of a book, ever? I'm sure you also remember the answer to all the world's problems (or something like that) - which is "42". And who could argue that it's not?

And just for Elleise, who wondered if the Guide might be a philosophical book... I misled you by accident, I'm afraid, when I referred to God's Final Message to his Creation. The message was - spelled out letter by letter in the book, as the dying computer Marvin read it through the pay-to-view binoculars - W e a p o l o g i s e f o r t h e i n c o n v e n i e n c e. Which is also funny, in the context!

Wow! Now that's a blast from the past. I'll have to check it out again. It's been so long.

HA HA OMG Gordon, I totally forgot about "42." Oy, I have got to read these books again

I love this series. We've read it many times, seen the screen versions, and listened to the author-read audio tape :).