The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is Douglas Adams’ well-known and much lauded satirical science fiction novel. It follows the adventures of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect who stowaway on a spaceship just as Earth is being destroyed.

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I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as part of the 2025 Thoughtful Reading Challenge. September’s challenge was to read a science fiction book, preferably one that takes place in space, because September 8th was National Star Trek Day. Science fiction is not my genre and has become even less so every time my husband turns my TV on dark, depressing sci-fi shows such as Prometheus (over and over and over again). However, I’m glad I listened to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, if for no other reason than to see why it’s so widely read. Thankfully, the story is the opposite of dark and depressing.

Providing a summary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will be challenging because it was like listening to a collection of nonsensical Monty Python skits, but here I go.

The novel opens with a scene in which Arthur Dent throws himself in front of a bulldozer that is about to level his home. Little does he know that a similar fate is in store for the entire planet. But his long-time friend Ford Prefect knows, and he’s determined to save them both. Unbeknownst to Arthur, Ford is an alien from outer space who has some inside knowledge.

After getting drunk with Ford, Arthur wakes up to find himself on a spacecraft operated by the alien who just destroyed Earth. This alien doesn’t like stowaways, or “hitchhikers”, and tortures Arthur and Ford by making them listen to his very bad poetry. When this doesn’t have the desired effect, he throws the two off the ship.

They are picked up in the nick of time by a spaceship named the Heart of Gold, where they meet the shady Galactic President, a depressed robot, an annoyingly chipper computer, and a female earthling whom Arthur had tried to pick up at a party six months earlier.

The rest of their adventures include:

– being fired upon by two nuclear missiles which the ship somehow turns into a pot of flowers and a whale.

– visiting the planet whose residents architected the creation of Earth.

– meeting a couple of mice that represent the creatures who commissioned the creation of Earth.

– finding out that the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is “forty-two.”

– escaping being shot by two alien police officers who are tracking the Galactic President for stealing the Heart of Gold.

At the end, they head off to eat at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

As the friend who listened to it with me said, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is trippy.

Although it’s not my genre, I’m glad I listened to it because it made me laugh several times. Imagine hearing this line read in a deadpan British accent, “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.” Too funny!

Here are some other amusing quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

“One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious.” So true.

“‘I don’t want to die now!’ he yelled. ‘I’ve still got a headache! I don’t want to go to heaven with a headache, I’d be all cross and wouldn’t enjoy it!” Food for thought?

“And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before—and thus was the Empire forged.” I’ve boldly split many infinitives in my life. Good thing I’m not a writer.

“We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!” Must haves.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy isn’t the type of novel that strives to have an amazing plot or meaningful themes or even well-developed characters. Rather, it’s all about silly humor, and for that reason I’m glad I listened to it.

I would say the ideal audience for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is readers who love science fiction and Monty Python. Even if you don’t fit that profile and want to check it out out of curiosity, the book is a quick read (208 pages) or listen (5 hours and 51 minutes).

I know many of you have read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. What did you think?

And if you read a science fiction novel in September, I’d love to hear about it!

**Reminder – October’s challenge is to read a book with a witch character.