h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

having just re-read the salmon of doubt, i would be interested to know what peoples favourite parts are. for me, its the forward by steven fry, and the lament by richard dawkins, because they arent talking about a famous writer, but a friend, someone they knew and loved, and i will never be able to know douglas the way they did, but by reading the articles, i can gain insight into the wonderful person he was, which is all anyone can do now

It's odd, but the Salmon of Doubt is probably the first book I've ever read that I conciously put down without finishing, despite the fact I loved it...

I devoured the first half of the book in about 8 hours (sat on a train) but when I got to the actual unfinished novel of Salmon of Doubt I just felt I didn't really want to read a half-finished work by someone who worked so hard to perfect their writing before publishing it.

It's definitely a book you can dip into.

Yes, the Dirk Gently story was sad because it had so many loose ends. All sorts of apparently unrelated items, which now will remain unrelated, because we'll never know what DNA intended to do with them.

The confused scene in which the rhino escapes and is shot was particularly sad, because it showed the whole thing from the point of view of the rhino, who hadn't a clue what was going on.

I'm reading his essay on an Artifical God and the four ages of sand at the moment. It's fascinating to see how he can stretch a metaphor to breaking point.

I liked the bit with the policemen.

i dont recall that-what was it about?

My favourite bits are "Maggie and trudie", "Frank The Vandal" and the one about buying Beatles records.

Whisky, I like you have read the whole book except those few unfinished chapters of Salmon of Doubt itself. I may get around to it one and wonder which bits would have stayed which would be heavily modified and how he would have continued further. But it is too close to the tragic loss for me to do that still.

My favourite funny story was the packet of cookies at the train station. And, no, I still haven't read the novel of Salmon Of Doubt.

Biscuits, technically.

::smacks himself for being a bit of a ::

Actually, they were cookies. Douglas Adams himself used the word cookies.

The ploicemen are the ones that argue: It is lawfull and therefore safe" and "You're not in the universe now, you're in England"

In which version? I've got the collectors edition, in which DA states that anything that's wrong is "wrong for good", and he uses biscuits, it!

Not that it matters in the least... just curious about which version you have.

Mines the hardback, and that uses Cookies!
Maybe subject for a seperate conversation- cookies or biscuits, discuss.

Hmm, some copies of the book may well have been 'translated' for American audiences... not at all uncommon y'know...

True, 's also well known that every bloody book he wrote had about four different versions... a few of the HHG2G books had even more than that.
Of course, what could be is that I'm not even talking about the right story... I was assuming that we were talking about the package of biscuits that Arthur Dent shared with the total stranger in the train station, thinking that it was his own package when in fact his package was underneath his paper.
This story appeared in "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish", and he's telling it to what's 'er name, the girl he fell in love with, ummmm.... Fenchurch, was it??

Anyhoo, if I've been an idiot and am talking about an entirely different story than the rest of you, please forgive me and feel free to give me a sound smack if you feel the inclination

Hmm, I seem to remember that 'Salmon of Doubt' contains a different version, told from DNA's perspective rather than Adam's...

It was exactly the same story Arthur attributed to himself when trying to get into Fenchurch's treat (sorry, luv a pun) although it was digestives that time I think..? Lookds like 2-1 to biscuits.

My copy is a paperback which I bought in Stansted airport (London). I assumed it was a British edition. It says Cookies.

Anyway, even in the UK there are Chocolate Chip Cookies, as far as I know.