Remembering Douglas Adams

Growing up I wasn’t much of a reader; I was more interested in sports and being active. At least until I read two books at around the same time in my life. Prior to this I didn’t appreciate that there were books that would really interest me – never really considered it.

At around 20 years of age I discovered The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I was captivated and quickly turned into a ‘reader’ – so much so that later on in life I would find myself being the proprietor of a used bookshop. My shop was never without a good stock of Douglas Adams books. Of course by then I had read all of his books a few times over. I’ll include a bibliography down at the end. That all just to say that Adams had a huge impact on the direction my life would take. I was spending most of my productive time in search of girls and a cheap supply of beer – when Adams added Books to my short list of interests you can imagine the long term change in direction that a nudge like this can provide. If you have a teenage son who isn’t all that interested in reading – you might consider discreetly leaving a copy of Hitchhiker lying around the house. You never know where it may lead.

No one has been able to write anything like Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide books. If you haven’t read them, you’re in for a treat.

— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) May 25, 2012

 

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I’ve ended up where I needed to be – Douglas Adams.

Douglas Adams’ Bibliography

Fiction Series

Dirk Gently

1 Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
2 The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988)
3 The Salmon of Doubt (2002) [SF]

Doctor Who Universe

Doctor Who: The Scripts
The Pirate Planet (1995)

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts (1985)
Young Zaphod Plays It Safe (1986) [SF]

1 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) also appeared as:
2 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)
3 Life, the Universe and Everything (1982)
4 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984)
5 Mostly Harmless (1992)

Collections

The Salmon of Doubt (2002)

Nonfiction

The Meaning of Liff (1983) with John Lloyd
Last Chance To See (1990) with Mark Carwardine

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