The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World

Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien.

After that, things get much, much worse.

With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover.

Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .

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Published Jun 23, 1997

208 pages

Average rating: 7.41

433 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Khris Sellin
Jul 05, 2024
10/10 stars
Don't know why I waited so long to read this classic. Such a fun read.
gruvy
Aug 09, 2025
8/10 stars
Hilarious
na_na_cakes
May 28, 2025
9/10 stars
Very good :)) And very funny :)) Open ended ending, but makes sense cuz there is a lot a of books after this one. It’s like a mellow action sci-fi
M.G.
Dec 18, 2024
7/10 stars
Just a word savage
get.a.jeevan
Sep 02, 2024
10/10 stars
When I started reading it, I expected myself to give this a 4/5 but dang I COULDN'T put this book down until I was finished. And any book that manages to make me read it at one go despite my terrible attention span and lack of concentration deserves a 5!

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