Douglas Adams Continuum (DAC)

Im just wondering if everyone here instantly liked DNA's books when they read them. I mention this as i didnt enjoy H2G2 (the first book of his i read) until the second time around.

Basically, i started reading it a few weeks after seeing phantom menace (so sci-fi was not good, as far as i was concerned) and didnt even get to see zaphod steal the heart of gold. I got up to the description of him and thought 'two heads? three arms? This Adams guy is making aliens by sticking extra bits on humans!'

I gave up there and then. It wasnt until i talked to a substitute teacher about a year later at my high school and we started talking about british comedy. After going through things like monty python, red dwarf, and the goons, he asked if i had read/heard etc H2G2. I told him i tried, and why i stopped. He recommended i try it agian, and explained a few things, and told me a few little bits i thought might be fun. I think now that one of the problems i faced was i was taking it too seriously and didnt get the jokes when they appeared, so it seemed a bit stupid. Haivng said that, i am glad i gave it another try.

And now, five years after that happened, one of my friends has started reading them. But he admits to hearing about them and being something he 'never thought he would like'. SO i think thats a similar situation.

And just another thing like it. When i started to read Asimov last year, i noticed several mentions of hover cars and atom blasters. My original impression was while the stories were brilliant, some little details were clichéd. I then realised that Asimov was probably using them before anyone else had thought of them, or at least before they were clichéd.

Yes.

Immediately.

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"Oh I'm a meat eater too. I love meat. Expecially meat with melted cheese." ... number 302079
(... don't piss us off)

I loved his books from the start. I did have the advantage of knowing what to expect having already seen the tv series & heard the Original Records recording.

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Megagay? Didn't he fight Godzilla?

At once! From the very first mentioning of "little pieces of green paper". I know the quote's inacurate, but...

Sadly, some friends of mine (yes, such people exist) who are Guide fans, could endure Dirk Gentley. I tried to talk them into reading a bit more than just the beginning, but...

Has anyone here noticed my tendecy not to end sentences?

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"Hey, you guys! Check out this latest craze: food!"
-"Hey man, that's like totally wicked! Now we're not gonna, like, starve to death anymore!"

I have to admit to being disappointed when I read the first book. Being used to the radio series, it seemed rather flabby and drawn out. The fact that it didn't even include the whole radio series was even worse. It grew on me with a second reading
I loved the second book, hated the third, loved the fourth, hated the fifth

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D.
The Thirteenth Triskaidekaphobe
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What Seymour said. And even to this day (20+ years later), if I'm feeling sad all I have to do is pick up HG and by page four I am laughing out loud.

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vagabond
birds, any birds, anywhere, any time

From the moment I started reading the first book, I was hooked. My love for it grew on subsequent readings, but it was there from the start. And I went in with almost no prior knowledge.

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So long...etc.

Yes.

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Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!

Why, I say, why does this happen?

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Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!

I heard the radio series first so just lapped it up, plus humour-wise it was right up my boulevard.

Yes. Immediately.

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WWJD... for a Klondike bar?

instantly. i was blown away, i thought it was the funniest thing i´d ever read. i was also completely unprepared, knew next to nothing of scifi and had no idea what a classic i was laying my hands on. it was different from everything i´d read until then (still is, i guess) and i loved it.
i liked the other books less in the order they appeared, "mostly harmless" a complete let-down, and wasn´t very keen on the gently novels. this has changed in part with the re-reading and growing up. especially "restaurant" and "life, the universe" are dearer to me now because i´ve gotten over the !wow!-shadow of the first book´s impact.
the whole universe has leapt to another yay-level ever since i discovered the audio shows.

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

Definitely.

LTUAE is me favorite. Easy.

Although TRATEOTU has the battle tank.

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Personally, I believe joblessness is one of the core prerequisites for creativity. - OZ

I loved 'em all (except maybe #4- until the last chapter).

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TERROR!
ADVENTURE!
CREATIONISTS!
BLOOD!
FOREVER!

The premise intrigued me and was enough to keep me interested. And then, I read the words Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty That I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning. The blatant absurdity hit me and I was paralytic with laughter.

And I've been a fan ever since.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

I came to Douglas through Mark Carwardine and "The Last Chance To See". After that I devoured the H2G2 novels. Dirk Gently followed. From the very beginning I loved the eloquence, the absurdity, the humour, the love for life and in general the brilliant mind. There aren't many authors that can make you laugh and ponder at the same time. How sad that so often the brightest lights shine only for a short time ...

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
(Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See")

What? Didn't like...?

STONE THE BLASPHEMER

Course I did

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Carpe aleae

One word: YES!

More words: I can't remember if I heard the radio series, then read the books or vice-a-versa. Either way, I was familiar with the story before getting into the other. Being a long standing sci-fi fan, I got into them or the radio series (whichever came first) from a family member, probably my uncle, who recommended them/it to me. Same goes for Terry Pratchett. At least I know how I got interested in his fantastic Discworld universe. As for the Hitchhiker books, I loved them all, with the exception of the ending to "Mostly Harmless". Glad that was nicely fixed in the radio play.

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“Gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.â€

H2G2 was actually recommended to me long before I read it. My brother insisted that I read it as soon as I was developmentally capable. The fact that I was just out of the cradle made no difference to him - and I thank him, though it took me a considerable amount of time to follow his advice. I remember finally picking up an omnibus edition at the local Borders, flipping it open, and reading. From the moment I read 'in exactly the same way that bricks don't' I was forever enthralled. And the fannishness has only grown...if that's possible.

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Conservatives on the Arts: the arts are for gays destroy museums and put up those wild jungle housing projects

What is the porpoise of existence?

And yet, i wish someone had done that to me at the time. Sometimes the only way to knock sense into me is to physically knock sense into me... :)

I read the first five pages of the first book and I was like "this is crap" and I put it down. A few weeks later a friend told me that it was a really good book, so I tried again and I was like "this is crap" and I put it down again. A year later I picked it up and read the whole thing, went out and bought the The Ultamate Hitchhikers Guide, read it, read it again, read Black Hawk Down, tried to read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and then read H2G2 again.

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"Poo" -- Hungry Joe January 7th, 1923

And then you started two-timing us on another forum ... bastard!

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"Oh I'm a meat eater too. I love meat. Expecially meat with melted cheese." ... number 302079
(... don't piss us off)

There was never another forum. I just wanted you guys to be jealous. I wanted POWER!!!

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"Poo" -- Hungry Joe January 7th, 1923

So where you been, then?
Did you get grounded?

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"Oh I'm a meat eater too. I love meat. Expecially meat with melted cheese." ... number 302079
(... don't piss us off)

School work.

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"Poo" -- Hungry Joe January 7th, 1923

Well, ok then ... I guess ...

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"Oh I'm a meat eater too. I love meat. Expecially meat with melted cheese." ... number 302079
(... don't piss us off)

If i had a nickel for everytime i see that...

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WWJD... for a Klondike bar?

I was introduced to them by my dad, only he was rather enthusiastic about it, so I was introduced to them rather younger than I maybe should have been. So the first time through, I didn't like or finish it, simply because it was a bit beyond me. I picked it up again a couple years later, and enjoyed it immensely.

The exact same is true of Ed Abbey, William Gibson, JRR Tolkien and Richard Dawkins.

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...And then they made me their chief.

I loved it immediately. Still the funniest thing I’ve read to date. I’m not much given to hero worship, but Douglas Adams really did change my way of thinking much in the same way as a strong hallucinogenic or a kick to the head might. The man was truly a genius of sorts.

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I have turned a new leaf: everyday from here-on-out I shall make it a point to do some random act of bravery and then run like hell
http://steampunk.ning.com/profile/VonDarkfaulker

You should try again, very informative and insightful book, and once you have read that you should read Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer, which is even better, but especially if you have read William Shirer's book first.

Yeah, I liked it from the beginning. I remember that the first chapters were a bit hard to get by, but I was fascinated from the beginning and instantely loved the book.

I liked it almost as soon as I finished the first sentence. I was a little confused, but I still liked it.

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In my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair
I'm not in the mood for whirling

"But you have no weapons! No defenses! NO PLAN!"
"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?"

I recall taking it with me on vacation, the first book and the second too. I liked it but I didn't really understand why...

Here's my story.

I read the first book in preparation for the movie. I absolutely adored both of them. Then I bought the radio series and for a month couldn't go to sleep without listening to it. I read mostly harmless and then So Long And Thanks for all the Fish (I've read the series out of order) Which were both marvelous. Then I had a ball playing the game. Now, however, I'm reading the restaurant at the end of the universe and I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT. I have nothing against the book, indeed I have reccommended it to others, But the thing is....

The thing is....

I couldn't stop those damn radio voices from saying all the lines for me!!!
I believe it was Stephen Fry who said in an introduction to Wodehouse:
no actors are as good as the actors we each of us carry in our head.

And I mean no offence to the actors in the radio series. I loved the radio series. But they've taken the characters away from me. When I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox wasn't completely stupid. He had charm, he was cunning. But now when I read his words all I can hear is the American accent.

And it pains me. It pains me to think that I will never get those characters back. The characters that both Douglas and I created, in my head.

Forgive me for ranting, But I have lost something I'll never get back...


....Unless I wipe my memory. Any suggestions?

Perhaps a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster will do the trick.

I know what you're talking about. Thankfully for me it's Douglas' reading of his books that is kind of burnt into my brain!!!

But don't be hasty! How about introducing yourself to your fellow forum members? Tell us about your wooden heritage, your favourite fungus or your most despised chainsaw ...

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
(Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See")

Me answer: absolutely.

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Sir Humphrey: With Trident we could obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe.
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You can't be a successful dictator and design women's underclothing. - Bertram Wooster, The Code of the Woosters

I am a bit dissapointed with myself but the very truth is that I didn't like HHGG the first time I read it. I simply didn't get it and I put it down shortly after Zaphod stole the heart of gold.

Maybe I was a bit too young (14) and maybe I wasn't that interrested in probability, physics and statistics at the time.

I then picked it up again when I was about 18 and was totally blown away. I couldn't believe I didn't like the book the first time and I was almost like addicted to a drug. I just HAD to read the other books, listen to the radio series, buy the TV-show etc.

It was when I realized that I had read the first book 11 times during one year and even written it completely down by hand, word for word, letter for letter, on my home computer (this was before OCR and I just HAD to have it digitally) that I understood that I might soon be a case for a mental asylum and that I should take a paus.

Luckily the DAC came to my rescue a few years later and here I am now... soon ready for the asylum again.

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Regardless of your age, your finger fits perfectly in your nostril. This is the ultimate proof that we are SUPPOSED to pick our noses.

I thought this was the asylum.

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vagabond
birds, any birds, anywhere, any time

That's what I thought too.

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So long...etc.

No, we are Outside the Asylum.

The DAC is a global vesion of Wonko the Sane's house.
Can't you see the way the walls sort of fold away from you when you are here?

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D.
The Thirteenth Triskaidekaphobe
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