The answer is.... 42

i recently was hunting through thrift shops and the local libraries for a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - though i wanted one that hadn't been adapted from the movie (yes, there are copies that have been adapted from the movie floating around).

my search for a copy of just the first book in the series proved to be useless, so i managed to find a copy of The HitchHiker's Trilogy of Four even though there was a copy of the Trilogy of 5 available, but for significantly more money.

the first thing that disappointed me about every copy of the book i managed to find was that not a single one had the words "Don't Panic" written in large letters on the back of the book. you would think that at some point the publishers of this book in all of its versions would have thought to do that?

well, i suppose you would only think that if you had read the book.

but it had been many years since i had picked up a copy, and having recently seen the the movie i decided it was a good time to do so. i rather enjoyed the film, but was at a point where i couldn't remeber how faithful to the book it may have been.

although there were significant differences in character development and minor differences in story line, i felt the film did a good job of portraying the fun of the book while adding a bit of a hollywood love story into it as well (which does not happen in the book... well, the first of the four anyways. haven't finished The Restaurant at the End of the Universe yet). overall, i'd have to say go rent it and watch it - then, if you haven't already read the book go find a copy and read it (not the movie adapted version).

there IS one major important thing though to note before you watch the movie or read the book - it's that if you're the type of person who can't deal with alien names (which are often dreadfully long and difficult to pronounce and/or read), you will have to deal with those names if the guide should happen to end up in your viewing/reading lineup.

but it's all good. i'm going to make a point of reading all of the books in the series at some point before the year is over.

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