I can see I'm behind. Let me try to catch up some today.
First up,
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I can't say this is my favourite book of the series but I can't say it wasn't. It started it all, after all, and there's no forgetting the opening salvo of Arthur Dent trying to protect his home from being demolished so that the government can build an interstate bypass through his front yard. Not only does the series provide a surprisingly cohesive plot with memorable characters (if not, exactly, character development), this book - this (increasingly inaccurately named) trilogy - comes as close to written word Monty Python as anything could. From Marvin the Paranoid Android to the improbability drive, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox, this series is so rich with quotable quotes and memorable vignettes that it's hard to pick just one. But that's what I'm going to do anyway. You can look up for yourselves my runners up, both of which may be also be found in the inaugural novel. Just google "Hitchhiker's Guide Towel" or "Hitchhiker's Guide Whale Passage" if you like. In the mean time, here for your reading enjoyment is Adam's description of Vogon poetry - also from Book 1:
“Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.
The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain.
The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, in the destruction of the planet Earth. Vogon poetry is mild by comparison.”
Yes, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone was an actual poet who, as it happens, went to school with Adams. More on that
here, including a sample of his poetry.
