The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a good book as "one with a lot of pages and colorful illustrations." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines a good book as "any book that isn't the Encyclopedia Galactica" I personally define a good book as "any book that causes one to exercise physical restraint to keep himself/herself from picking it up at 2:36 so that he/she can read just one more chapter." Based on my definition, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is most assuredly a "good" book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is about space fleet of evil aliens, called Vogons, who arrive on earth in yellow spaceships and proceed to completely and totally demolish the planet in order to build an intergalactic freeway. At least, that's what the first three chapters are about. The rest of the book tells the story of the lone survivor, Arthur Dent, his friend, Ford Prefect of Betelgeuse, and the misadventures that they have as they try to survive trials such as whales falling from the sky, melancholy robots, and really bad poetry while still holding on to their towels.

The plot is slightly convoluted (the exact probability of the events occurring in real life is two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and nine to one against). The originality of the storyline, however, more than makes up for this. The characters, especially those with more than one head, are surprisingly nonchalant about things such as the destruction of the earth and the fact that they have fish in their ears, but get very angry about little things like gate-crashers. Both the outrageous plot and strange characters contribute to making this novel what can only be described as "zany."

In addition, Adams' style of writing that throws the reader one hilarious curve ball after another. For instance, at a particularly tense moment Adams writes, "For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen." Although Adams occasionally uses a term known only to those who spend eons traversing the Galaxy, such as Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, he is either quick to explain it or just assumes that the reader will be so amused at the term that he/she won't really care what it means.

All in all, this was a fabulous book. Adjectives such as brilliant and not-to-be missed come to mind. Should you choose not to read it, I must forewarn you that you will feel very left out when all of your friends know that the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42 and that they should treat their pet mice with a little bit more respect