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

O.K. It's been three weeks and indeed I have another favourite today

"The Hotel New Hampshire" by John Irving.
"Sorry, just not big enough" is *One Extremely Powerful Line* if you've read the book from the start. I even like the movie they made out of it... Although when I went to see it there were only two people there, me and my friend...

TM.

The best book I have ever read!?? ONLY ONE!?? Well, "Hamlet" is a play, so that doesn't really count...

I thought my favorite book was "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaneil Hawthorne, but I have recently re-read it and I find otherwise.

Allow me to cast three votes then!??

"Siddhartha" by Herman Hess.
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.
and "A Town Like Alice" by Nevil Shute.

Of course, this will change, I am sure... surely not the first two for a long while!!! AND THAT'S NOT TO SAY I LOVE "A TOWN LIKE ALICE" any less!!!

WAIT!!! No-- I shall change my third choice-- but unofficially... See... I've read "Alice" twice, so it can stay where it is... until I read Irving Stone's "Lust for Life" a second time... and if it is a good as I remember, why... MOVE OVER ALICE!!!

Indeed Dragonfly, it just ain't fair
Maybe we should restrict the list to the top 1% of the books one has read ? Although I know that I'd come up with an interminable list that way

TM.

And I haven't even mentioned "The Sheep Look Up" by John Brunner...

Top 1% eh!?? Does this include all the textbooks read in school!?? And what about unfinished books!?? And music books!?? And notebooks!?? Hee hee hee...

"The Sheep Look Up"... what do they look up at!?? And where does this book take place!?? New Zealand!??? YAY!!!

I know this may seem a bit nitpicking, but just in case somebody wants to look him up: "Herman Hess" is called Hermann Hesse.

I know this may seem a bit nitpicking, but just in case somebody wants to look him up: "Herman Hess" is called Hermann Hesse.

WOW!!!! REALLY!??... herrrmm.... you know, I read that book about four or five years ago and I was foolish enough to LOAN it to someone who STILL NEEDS TO GIVE IT BACK!!! So apologies to Mr. Hesse...

since this conversation I started reached 100 postings, I thought it would be interesting to compile the replies, so I have and you can see them here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A589575

I also quite liked 2001 a space oddessey

YAY!!!

Excellent.

I know it isn't your fault, as the conversation has been somewhat chaotic, but there are one or two errors and omissions:

1. 'Catch 22' is by Joseph Heller.
2. 'The Crow Road' is by Iain Banks.
3. 'Walking on Glass' is also by Iain Banks (not Ian).
4. You have Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegutt and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 'Kurt Vonnegut' is correct. He may be Jr, but it doesn't make it onto the dust jacket in the UK.
5. Heinlein is Robert A Heinlein.
6. 'If Not Now, When?', 'If This is a Man?' and 'The Truce' are all by the same Primo Levi. You also have some of these in the 'without author list'.
7. 'On the Road' and 'The Dharma Bums' are by Jack Kerouac.
8. 'Cosmos' and 'Contact' are by Carl Sagan.
9. 'The Divine Comedy' is 'La Divina Comedia' in Italian. Either way, Dante's family name is Alighieri. 'Purgatorio' listed later is the second book of the trilogy.
10. 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' is by Robert M. Pirsig.
11. 'The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test' is by Tom Wolfe.
12. 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' ('the' rather than 'an') is by James Joyce.
13. 'Do Androids Dream...' is by Philip K Dick.
14. 'Falling' is by Colin Thubron.
15. 'The Bridge' is by Iain Banks. 'Inversions', 'Player of Games' and 'State of the Art' are all by Iain M Banks.
16. 'Lolita' is by Vladimir Nabakov.
17. 'Ender's Shadow' and 'Speaker for the Dead' are by Orson Scott Card.
18. 'The Little Prince' is by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
19. 'The Dark is Rising' is by Susan Cooper.
20. 'The Name of the Rose' is by Umberto Eco.
21. 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' is by Richard Bach.
22. Surely 'Wateing For Gadou, by Foust' is a joke?! I've never heard of it, although it bears a striking resemblance to 'Waiting for Godot', by Samuel Beckett.
23. I don't know the book, but surely 'Walden' was written by a Thoreau rather than Thoreaho.

thanks for the info, I think I've updated it all,

I never relly thought about the question, but theres more books I liked, but I have to admit I'm not that well read,

The Road To Mars, by Eric Idle, I quite liked, its a job to think

There's not enough room for all the great books out there. Ok. There is. In a library...

You know I have two copies of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!???

But that's the only book of the series that I have...

I'd like to add: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Sopranos by Alan Warner (the Scottish choir one, not the Mafia one).

You need them, Dragonfly! 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' is brilliant, although the rest of the books aren't quite as good. The radio show's still best though.

Emily, who just got her complete set of limited edition Hitch-hiker's tapes back off her ex-boyfriend after TWO YEARS...

I think you'll find Vladimir's name is Nabokov, not Nabakov.

Indeed, absolutely correct.

AAAAAAGH!

The Virgin Suicides. I'm sorry but this is a long story. I saw the Virgin Suicides going in Fopp for £3 when no-one I knew had heard of it. I then decided that it looked great and bought myself a copy. However one of my friends had a birthday that week and she seemed to be the sort that would really like this book so I gave her my only copy, when I went to buy it again it had sold out. Now everyone I know has a copy and says it's great and I've just spent all my money on a guitar amp and don't have any to spend.
Oh well, if it's still only £3 then I might make an exception.
I'd suggest you read Catcher in the Rye and The Crow Road too if you like depressing novels about teenagers (NOT i repeat, NOT teenage novels which are mainly cheap romance pap, poor tv spin-offs and unoriginal horrors.)

Stay Beautiful

Bob.

I just finished reading "Excession" by Iain Banks,and would recommend it to anyone.It's a very intelligent,subtle book.
And,solely to brag,I've read the 1st 4 hitch-hiker books 3 times,and mostly harmless twice,only cos I got it after the others.

I like Richard Bach too. In fact my all time favourite book is "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" - I got it as a present with the lines: 'takes an hour to read, but a lifetime to understand'.

OK that sounds a bit cheesey, but I think thats true - it's a small book packed with meaning. At the time I hadn't read anything quite like it.

Sister Bluebird

Anyone ever read "Roll of Thunder,Hear my cry" by (ah,explitive deleted,I can't remember who wrote it...)
We did it in english,and before we started it I didn't think it was going to be any good,but by the end,I had read it fully to the end,before we were halfway through the book in class.