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Cover of The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams

The Deeper Meaning of Liff

Douglas Adams, John Lloyd

  • 156 pages · about 3 hours
  • First published 1990
  • 10 editions
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1 About this book

Does the sensation of Tingrith(1) make you yelp? Do you bend sympathetically when you see someone Ahenny(2)? Can you deal with a Naugatuck(3) without causing a Toronto(4)? Will you suffer from Kettering(5) this summer? Probably. You are almost certainly familiar with all these experiences but just didn't know that there are words for them.

Well, in fact, there aren't--or rather there weren't, until Douglas Adams and John Lloyd decided to plug these egregious linguistic lacunae(6). They quickly realized that just as there are an awful lot of experiences that no one has a name for, so there are an awful lot of names for places you will never need to go to.

What a waste. As responsible citizens of a small and crowded world, we must all learn the virtues of recycling(7) and put old, worn-out but still serviceable names to exciting, vibrant, new uses.

Good for readers who want: humor and a short read.

  • Humor
  • English wit and humor
  • American wit and humor
  • Terms and phrases

2 About Douglas Adams

1952–2001

Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humourist, and screenwriter. He wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy, before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 14 million copies in his lifetime. He also adapted it into a 1981 television series, a 1984 video game and a 2005 feature film. Adams was born in Cambridge and raised in Essex.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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