It's me. I'm people.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is fuckin amazing.

152

Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett are responsible for 80% of my sense of humor.

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- Never found Douglas Adams books funny but loved how entertaining they are. And discword is one of my favourite series, Pratchett's writing style makes the books effortless to read.
  
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- I really love Douglas Adams books and just going through the middle of the colour of magic... Not feeling like the best book ever, but enjoying It so far. Any recommendations for the next one from Terry Pratchett's discworld saga? Too many to choose from.. 😔
  
  Edit: didn't expect so many replies, thank you all!!
  
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- I just wanted to recommend Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley Its a very similar style of humor and was actually written before Hitch Hikers. The audiobook is particularly exceptional.
  
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- I've never read any Pratchett. Any suggsstions on what would be a good startingpoint (as a particularly good example of his writing)?
  
  E: It seems this question was mostly answered in other comments.
  
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I'm not much of a reader but thoroughly enjoyed these books.

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Probably the best opening to any non Pratchett book.

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I personally really like Mark Lawrence's red sister opening slightly more for its world building and absurdity until you find out why nuns and the MC particularly are so dangerous in that world

5
Seveneves starts with the moon shattering.

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- And Seveneves is a really good book!
  
  But to me at least there's something incredible and perfect about Douglas Adams jokingly summing up all that ever was, is and will be in two sentences that while almost nonsense also completely capture the situation.
  
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”The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

1

Perhaps my favorite quote of all time is, "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." So simple, effective, and utterly hilarious.

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I always liked "one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change".

1

Arthur felt happy. He was terribly pleased that the day was for once working out so much according to plan. Only twenty minutes ago he had decided he would go mad, and now here he was already chasing a Chesterfield sofa across the fields of prehistoric Earth.

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I turn 42 in a few weeks and decided to finally read HGttG because I thought it was a shame that I hadn't yet done so, being a fan of both scifi and absurdism. I didn't grok it. People seem to really love this novel, and I kept waiting to have an ah-ha! moment where I understood what the appeal was, but it never happened. I'm sort of bummed about it. :/

0
- English humor has a certain style to it that doesn’t click for everyone. And some books one just can’t connect with - I have tried reading the Wizard of Earthsea books several times, but it always feels like I’m blind in them.
  
  I’ve found with Pratchett that I had to do the Tiffany Aching books first to really feel his writing; then I was able to read his other stories.
  
  But sometimes it’s exposure; it takes me about a quarter of a book to ‘get’ Shakespeare, then my brain clicks with it and I can read all his plays without trouble.
  
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- I feel your pain. At least you tried.
  
  My ah-ha moment was probably: "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
  
  In any case, happy birthday. I hope you find all the answers this year.
  
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I remember spending way too long figuring out the very first puzzle in the old text based adventure game that had me stuck in the dark. All you have to do is open your fucking eyes.

14

I never figured out how to manage to grab the electronic thumb that Ford was carrying to get off the planet.

I did find out that "Fuck" was programmed in as a command. I got frustrated and typed "Fuck Ford." The game spat back "This is a family entertainment game, not a video nasty."

5
- Sounds like you should have been playing Leather Goddesses of Phobos
  
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- You sit at the bar and get drunk. You also eat some peanuts. I think Ford pushes the button or he gives it to you to hold while he goes to the loo.
  
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I just finished a book called "The prophet and the idiot" that gave me similar vibes as Douglas Adams. Not the same but very entertaining

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My replacement copy of the increasingly inaccurate trilogy, Ultimate,6 story copy just made it this weekend!

6

HHGTTG, Restaurant at The End of The Universe, Mostly Harmless, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish, Young Zaphod plays it Safe. What's the 6th?

My edition only has those 5, I think.

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- Mostly Harmless is the fifth book and Young Zaphod followed it, I thought.
  
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- Life, the Universe and Everything
  
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I'd be content with the 'never left the trees' part of that page.

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One of my favorites is the Total Perspective Vortex. Every thing in the universe affects every other thing. Therefore you can see everything that is going on by examining a slice of fairy cake.

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I feel sorry for Douglas, his work has gone the way of monty python and become over used cringe.

It was a fun read as a kid but too many adults base their whole personality on it and it makes me hurt.

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Let people enjoy things

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