The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

After the Moby Dick debacle, I needed something light and refreshing so I picked up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from Douglas Adams from my to-read pile of books. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is generally said to be a fun read. For the sake of my fingers, I'll just call the book H2G2, as seems to be the custom :)
Sooooo, I was looking for a change from Moby Dick, wasn't I? That was a change! For starters, I read the book in three days (as opposed to being stuck with it for 3 months), and was drawn to finish it (as opposed to forcing myself to turn the page). I found that it was refreshing and I even laughed a couple of times while reading it... This is definitely different from others sci-fi books like Dune or Foundation (my sci-fi culture is limited, sorry...) but I think this is what funny sci-fi is supposed to be. The tone is always derisive or ironic; the author often starts his sentence or paragraph some way and then boom! he turns it around and takes you by surprise with a goofy reference that you did not expect. Also, although the book does not take its subject very seriously, and even if it's not its primary goal, it manages to build a somewhat coherent story in a somewhat coherent universe.
Let's not be all positive here, it's not the best book in the world; at times, one can get tired of the abuse of derisive humor and of catchphrases but it's definitely not a show-stopper. Also in the minus column is the abrupt indecisive end (I hate it when they do that!).

As for the story, Arthur Dent has been dragged to the pub by his friend Ford Prefect, an undercover alien, and tries to enjoy several beers while hoping some workers do not demolish his house, when the Vogons, reputed as the worst poets in the universe, decide to destroy Earth, and proceed. That's for the first 3 chapters! Both manage to escape and beat the statistical odds (which were somewhat lower that winning the lottery twice in a row) to survive in space. There begins a journey sporting characters such as the two-headed rogue President of the universe, a depressed robot, white mice, the designer of the Norwegian fjords or friendly gun-happy space cops... You'll learn to never travel without your towel, how a war space fleet can be defeated by a simple dog, or how much 42 is the answer you were looking for.

As a conclusion, that was fun, but maybe not enough to make me rush to amazon.co.uk to buy the next volumes... Not yet anyway.