Book Bearings
Cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Book 1 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

  • 216 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1979
  • 130 editions
Buy on Bookshop.orgView on Open Library

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first of six books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "hexalogy" by Douglas Adams. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. It sold 250,000 copies in the first three months.

The namesake of the novel is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a fictional guide book for hitchhikers (inspired by the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe) written in the form of an encyclopaedia.

  • Humor
  • Imaginary Voyages
  • Science fiction
  • Interplanetary voyages
  • Adventure
  • Interstellar travel
  • Life on other planets
  • Ford Prefect

2 What to expect

Minutes before Earth is demolished, Arthur Dent is rescued by an alien friend. Absurd, very funny and short.

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

3 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)

4 More by Douglas Adams

5 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment