The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Who says science fiction has to be serious? Here's a book that keeps you in splits all through. It amuses, it amazes...no wonder the 'Guide' has a cult-following of its own! Welcome to 'The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy", a book that you should never leave home without....after all you may return, to find home as you know it, has been demolished as a result of a bureaucratic error.

Imagine this: A story that starts with the Earth getting blown up to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Think of a set of characters that literally and figuratively are from another planet(s) altogether. And the dialogues and wickedly hilarious descriptions...there is a group out there on the internet that discusses their favorite lines from this series. Some of my favorites:

Zaphod Beeblebrox (President of the galaxy) described by the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon VI as "The best bang since the big one"! This is a book that describes home as we know it as "an insignificant blue-green planet found in the far outer regions of the galaxy, whose inhabitants are so primitive that they still think that digital watches are amazing." So hold onto to your towel, grab a Pan-galactic gargle blaster (which when drunk feels like having your skull smashed by a gold brick with a lemon wrapped around it) and hitch a ride on this crazy series.

Oh yes, it is a series. The first four books (The Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy + The Restaurant at the end of the universe + Life, the Universe and everything + So long and thanks for all the fish) is available together as "A trilogy in four parts". The fifth book, called "Mostly Harmless" was published a few years ago. Personally I think the first two are absolute collecters' items. The rest of them you'll anyway end up reading as a Guide fan.