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

1506653 - my head hurts and I'm not getting anywhere.

15-0+6+6+5*3
1*5*0-6+6*(5+3)
(1-5+0+6)*(6+5*3)
Or, more messily:
1-5+0+6*(6+5/3)

That's great, thanks! Wonder why I couldn't do that myself, though. The closest I ever got was 43... And that took me weeks, now you come along with 4 different solutions in just a few minutes - I'm stunned.

Don't be too stunned. I *did* use a solution-finding program I wrote ages ago to get the results I posted.

I see. But as you *did* write the program I can be just a bit stunned anyway.
You wouldn't mind if I mentioned you on my PS, where I'll proudly display my brand new 42isms, would you?

>>"You wouldn't mind if..."

I'd be honoured to be mentioned by any fellow book-lover.

If you're at all interested in science books, have a look at A4166336 - something I vaguely suggested and ended up kind of coordinating.
Since maintaining all the webpages (the main page, the summary page(s) and the author list page(s)) was getting to be a real pain every time a book was added, I ended up writing another program to generate all the pages automatically, calculating all the relevant cross-links and such.

If you happen to come across anyone on h2g2 interested in doing anything similar for a different area of knowledge, and who thinks a similar organistaion of index pages could work for them, point them in my direction, since my program may be of use to them.

PS
Even if you aren't particularly interested in biology, if you love reading excellent writing, I'd hugely recommend D'arcy Thompson's "On Growth And Form" - A4191392. Well worth a trip to a library.

OR...

1+50-(6/6)-5-3 = 42

Welcome to the Knights of the DoQuaDecagonic table Gwendolen_Fairfax

Thanks again!
Potholer, I'll keep that in mind - although at the moment I somehow find myself cramming *literature* into my head without seeing an end.