Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Book Title/Author:
Publisher/Year Published: 2005 by RH Audio
Where I got it: The library
Rating: 4/5 stars
Challenges:A to Z Male Name: Z, A to Z Female Name: T, A to Z Book Title: H, A to Z Authors: D, 2011 TBR Challenge

Summary:via Goodreads
Don't leave Earth without this hilarious international bestseller about the end of the world and the happy-go-lucky days that follow. Join the gruesome twsome of Arthur Dent and his friend, Ford Perfect, in their now-famous intergalactic journey through time and space.

Thoughts:
I can't believe it took me this long to read this, well listen to it anyway. Back in 2004 I took a novels class where we were allowed to chose our own books. My one friend read this trilogy and told me I would love it. Well 6ish years later and I finally got around to it!

I think I really liked this book hearing it read to me by the lovely Stephen Fry. Would I have liked it just reading it myself? Sure. But I really think that his voices and twists on some of the dialogue really brought it to life for me during the snow-filled trecks home from work.

The most interesting part for me was stumbling across a word or phrase that I'd heard thrown around before and realizing that it originated in this book! And it was so nice to finally hear the story behind the answer to the life, universe and everything!

It's hard for me to describe this book in review form. I read a review on Goodreads that mentioned that however you feel about Monty Python is how you will feel about this book, and I think that is true. It's out there comedy; sometimes it's extremely random. But overall, it's super entertaining! So if you like fantastical fantasy and random insanity, I think that you would enjoy reading or listening to this book!

I plan to continue my listening journey with the other 4 audiobooks and also the radio plays!

The First Challenge: Finishing the Book

So I am going to deviate a bit from the normal today and focus on a problem that has been plaguing me as of late. I'd say as of this summer, I have on a couple of occasions started books and just been so completely turned off I couldn't finish. Now there have been a few times in my past where I have come across a few that I just couldn't get through, but I don't know if recently I've just been in a mood for a particular type of book, but there have been a couple that I could just not get into. I did give each one my 30 pages and out test, and some I think I will revisit when I am not in such a picky mood. But anyway, this is a list of books I picked up recently that I just could not get into.

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh
I've heard so many good things about this book, and actually started reading it twice within a 3 months before I realized I had attempted this one quite recently. I started off really well, graveyard scene, avenging death, things like that. Then we are at a party in the country and I pretty much wanted to die. More garden party. More party. Nothing interesting. So I stopped. It's gotten so many good reviews from people, that I will give it another go. Just not right now.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
This one was my fault. I went into this book thinking that it was going to be fast paced and thriller like. But when you think about it, hostage situations (which this book is about) are not like that at all. They are the waiting game, where in this case backstories abound. Again, I think this was mindset. It may do good as a fall or winter read, but it just didn't have the bounce I usually look for in the summer.

Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning
This one kind of made me sad. I really wanted to read a good time travel romance. But the cliches were beating me over the head and I was only 10 pages in. At the 30 page mark, I set it aside. Again, this one was highly recommended. But the hero and heroine from the glimpse I had of them, were ones I had read over and over again.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Because I was listening to the audiobook, I gave this one longer that I would if I were reading it. The first chapter pissed me off. The reader was horrid. I was spoiled with the other audiobooks I've had, but this woman. punctuated. the last. three. words. For dramatic effect maybe, I'm not sure. But I got over that and pressed on, but with that pressing I found out that King cannot write little girls well. It was just awkward. I did enjoy the occasional references to things from the late 90s (Surge, walkmans), but after I realized there were 3 more disks of the girl being lost in the woods, I just couldn't do it anymore.

So those are the ones that I just couldn't do right now. Have you read any of these? Did I misjudge them? I don't know for sure, but right now these just weren't right for me.

Summer 2010 Group Reads

20.10 - Group Reads
Read One Of The Following Group Read Selections And Make At Least One Post In The Discussion Thread.
A. Books About Books - The Book Thief
B. Sci-Fi/Fantasy - The Hunger Games
C. Mystery - The ABC Murders

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
Published2006 by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (first published 1936
Notes I listened to this on audiobook checked out from the library.
Rating: 3/5

Normally when I see the three books chosen to be the three group read options, I have three to chose from because I've never read any of them. This time was different. I just recently devoured The Hunger Games and I read The Book Thief about 6 months ago. So that left the ABC Murders. I must say, I really enjoyed And Then There Were None so I was looking forward to this as well.

The ABC Murders is a Hercule Poirot mystery. I don't know much about Christie's works, but it didn't take long to figure out that this was an established character. Normally this would bother me, the not reading things in the order they were intended, but with mysteries, I don't see how it would matter. Nothing would be given away. I can use all of my brainpower alloted for daily use and still not figure it out.

The plot is that Mr. Poirot receives some letters claiming a crime with happen in Andover and challenges Poirot to figure it out. The brush it off at first but as B and C happen, things start falling apart and coming together (as they do in mysteries). I did guess the whodunit part, but I had no idea why I was right.

I really enjoyed listening to this mystery unfold and I believe I would have enjoyed it if I had only read it as well. But the plus for the audiobook was that the actor who played all these characters was superb! It was quite easy for me to tell who was saying what before the "Mr Jones said" and it made the whole experience rather enjoyable.

This is a great mystery! I don't know of anyone who is into mysteries and never read Christie but if that happens to be you, give this one a shot. It's not your normal mystery.