During the months of September and October I had the privilege of reading all 5 of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books. They are now in my list top rated books. I want to give Brenda a mention for lending me the books. Thanks Brenda

Now the basic plot to this book is Arthur Dent an earthman has a friend who he had no idea was not from earth. On one fateful day Ford Perfect (his friend) tells him that they have 12 minutes before the world is destroyed so they have to drink beer. As the time approaches a fleet of Vorgon destruction ships arrive and tell the earth that they are going to be blown up to make room for an intergalactic highway. Right before the earth goes Ford and Arthur manage to hitchhike their way onto one of the ships. After listening to some horrible poetry from the vorgons who have discovered there presence on the ship they are ejected into space whereupon they are picked up by incredible odds by none other than a former crush of our main man Arthur in the ship of the guy she went home with instead of Arthur at a party. Arthur and Ford embark on a crazy adventure through the galaxy with Tricia MacMillan (aka Trillion) and Zaphod Beeblebrox to find the ultimate question to life the universe and everything to which the answer was well you’ll find out. Spoiling it would be no fun it made me laugh so hard and as you can hopefully tell from the summary almost everything is crazy in this story.

Something that I found interesting was that Douglas Adams initially wrote the story as a radio series which aired on BBC. One year after that aired, the book was published. The other 4 books from this series were published in 1980 (The restaurant at the end of the universe) 1982 ( Life, the Universe and Everything ) 1984 ( So Long and Thanks For All the Fish ) 1992 ( Mostly Harmless ). Eoin Colfer wrote the fifth sixth book to the series (And Another Thing) to which it was published on October 12th of 2009. Douglas Adams has passed away on May 11th 2001, he was 49.
The biggest thing this book has to offer is its humour. The jokes are zany/wacky but that makes them so much better. It’s the little things like doors with GPP (genuine people personalities) that sigh when they open because they love to open doors for people or a manic depressed robot with a large intelligence who can’t stand life. One of the things books do is tell us something about ourselves, THGTTG tells us about the experience of life and all those little things that happen to us and how we should go with what happens because there just might be an adventure waiting for us. If I didn’t give this book 5 stars I wouldn’t be a sci-fi fan I couldn’t even call myself one.
It is hard to give Douglas Adams and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy enough praise, all I can say is if you are a fan of sci-fi and can appreciate this type of humour then get this book. If you want to get it here are the links to order it online at Amazon.ca,Amazon.com, If you want to get the complete set of books here are the links to them. Amazon.com

Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Year of Publication: 1987

I recently reread this book for a second time when I found it under my brother’s desk on the floor. (grr such disrespect to this book) The first time I read it I was around 11 so my appreciation of this book was almost non-existent never the less it is a great book.

Kurt Vonnegut just might be my favourite author. He has written 14 books and 9 short stories compilations. One thing I really like about his books is that he included a couple of characters into different stories. One example is Kilgore Trout a science fiction writer in both Breakfast of Champions and in Galapagos. One thing to note about Vonnegut is that he really did serve in the army. In several other stories he also had characters who served in a war. One final note about Kurt is that he passed away in 2007 at the age of 87.

Summary time (hehe get it, it sounds like the season.) So the story is written from the perspective of an autobiography written by Rabo Karabekian. In his book he talks about the past but is drawn to talking about the present when an interruption occurs from a widower who is staying with him. Her name is Circe Berman. She is not the only one staying in the house as a guest with Rabo, there is also Paul Slazinger a writer who severed in the army with him and his cook Allison White and her daughter Celeste. In the past there is his parents and his two ex wives Dorothy who had his two children, and Edith who when she died left him with her fortune and house. The last people I will mention are Dan Gregory and Marilee Kemp. The former is a master artist who apprenticed Rabo, and the latter is Dan’s mistress.  I don’t want to give to much more information on the plot so I would just say one final point. What Rabo is writing in his autobiography is mainly how he grew up poor and his apprenticeship with Dan and then joining the army. Then he writes about the post war and the events leading up to the present which he also writes about through the story.

In my opinion Kurt has manifested himself as the main character, Rabo Karabekian. For one they both have low self-worth and served in the army and saw mass death. The reason for me saying that about Kurt’s self-worth is that he tried to kill himself and the reason for him seeing the mass death is that he was at the bombing in Dresden. I am assuming here but I think that Kurt was underappreciated as a writer just like Rabo was as an artist. Another character that I liked was Dan Gregory or Gregorian as Rabo’s mother refers to him as. It was quite interesting to have a character who worshiped Mussolini.

I loved this book very much and I believe that you will too. I loved it for several reasons the first being the ties between the book and Kurt’s life. Like as I mentioned earlier they both served in the war and witnessed a mass killing during a war that was the goal was extinction of a race. I also liked how coincidences were weaved in through-out the book I don’t want to go into specifics because that might ruin it for you but one that was very funny was the man who tricked Rabo’s parents for almost all their money and near the end of the book a relative of this man has a connection to Rabo again. Finally, and you may not understand what I am talking about but the thing that is in the potato barn is quite poetic but you have to think back after you have read what is in there. Another thing I have to say is that after reading every Kurt Vonnegut book I have been content with everything and it also seems to send me into a thought provoking state which lasts for hours. His work is just so amazing so I am going to give it five super awesome stars. If you would like to buy Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut it is available at Amazon.ca
, Amazon.com
and Chapters along with Barnes & Noble