Don’t panic.

Even as your home is bulldozed away, or as your planet is being destroyed, or even as everyone dies. Don’t panic.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a special kind of genius. I’m actually proud I saved this one for my final article. So let’s get into it.

**SPOILERS** (Obviously. You should know this by now, c’mon).

Arthur Dent is your average citizen. He eats to survive and survives to make money so that he can eat. Also, he’s a lazy chump who forgets everything. So on this particular day, Arthur’s best friend, Ford Prefect (who is obviously human) warns him about the end of the world. But Arthur has more pressing matters to attend to. Councilmen want to demolish his house so that they can build a bypass. But Arthur isn’t having it, and he protests the construction by laying in front of the bulldozer. His best friend, Mr. Prefect, ends up convincing him to have a drink at the pub and discuss the end of times (Arthur isn’t all too smart).

But it turns out that Ford Prefect was right all along, and an alien race known as the Vogons show up, ready to destroy Earth. There’s no negotiating it, they need to demolish Earth in order to build a bypass for an intergalactic highway.

I have to cut it there because at this point I was seriously laughing out loud. This is probably in my head’s top five list of funniest moments for this book. Oh geez, the irony gets me every time. Okay, back to the book.

Arthur & Ford are somehow able to make it onto the Vogon alien ship. It’s revealed that Ford isn’t actually human (what??). He’s an alien who has come to Earth to research the planet for a guide book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (haha), a book with information about every planet and place in the universe.

I’ll cut the summary there. Don’t worry, you really didn’t read too much into the book. The humor will still be just as special. Those are basically the first few pages. And oh my god, are those some amazing first few pages. If that doesn’t pull you into this book, I don’t know what will.

Adams fills this book with so much greatness that I can’t do it all justice. But I can tell you at least some of its beauty. Right off the bat, and you’ve probably figured this out by now, this book is hilarious. It’s really just so amusing how one event leads to another. Not only that, but you’ll also learn so much about dolphins, mice, alien politics, and the…

meaning of life.

Yes, this book truly has it all. I’d put the answer to life in this review, but no one has asked me the proper question yet.

And with that, my final book review is coming to an end. If there’s anything book related I’d love for you to do, it would be to read this book. I’m not even asking you to read the whole series (though I recommend that you do). Just 224 pages of genius.

Never stop reading.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.