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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
A decent bio
Heartening at best, dry at worst, Gaiman’s chronicle of the life of Douglas Adams is about what you would expect, which is to say that he lets us in on who Adams was and what he did.
Heartening at best, dry at worst, Gaiman’s chronicle of the life of Douglas Adams is about what you would expect, which is to say that he lets us in on who Adams was and what he did.
A nice little supplement to my recent dive into “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.” Back in the early 1980s, I was caught up in other things and didn’t really follow what Douglas Adams was up to. Looking back, I wish I had paid more attention and experienced the excitement as it was happening. My only complaint is that the book feels pretty dated. It would be great if it were updated to cover events up through Adams's passing.
Provides some interesting context about a widely loved author and their works.
The version of this book I read is the 1988 version, not the more updated version published (sadly) after Douglas Adams passing. Some chapters were great, such as the Letters to Adams one, and some chapters were mediocre, such as the one focusing on the making of the television show. This is still an excellent book to read if you're a superfan of Hitchhiker's (Hitch Hiker's or Hitch-Hiker's as the English version of the books interchanged as a bit) Guide to the Galaxy or just really miss Douglas Adam's wit and want more of it. I would like to read the later version of this book at some point, but for now I'm okay finishing this version of the book so I can pretend the world still has Adam's wit and intellect.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Full disclosure on this one: my library system did not have this book so I had to inter-library loan it, and the copy they came up with for me is a first edition. They've since published an updated version of the book, re-titled Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was published about four years after Adams's death in 2001. It probably has all sorts of extra chapters about the seventeen years of Adams' writing and fan activity since 1988, and of course, his death and legacy, that the first edition did not have. I would really like to track down a copy of the updated version, is what I'm saying.
This book was an obvious stop on my quest to read the complete Neil Gaiman bibliography, not least of which because it's one of the first things he ever published, and also because it's really interesting as a Gaiman fan (and an Adams fan) to see Gaiman freaking out hardcore about Douglas Adams and his work. His love for The Hitchhiker's Guide and its ilk is painfully obvious in every word (many of which have turns of phrase that foreshadow Gaiman's own career), which elevates the book from one of those commercial fan-guides it might have been, to something genuinely insightful. It also helps that Gaiman seems to have had access to the man himself, along with the key players involved in getting Adams's stories out to the world.
According to the picture that Gaiman paints, Adams was a brilliant man who stepped into fame reluctantly, and almost by accident. He was notoriously obscenely late on delivering manuscripts (putting new context to his famous quote, "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by"), and he described the process of writing more akin to torture than creating art (or humor, as he liked to think of it). It was also interesting to see the differences he had with the various mediums and stories he created. He described writing Hitchhiker's Guide to be all about the jokes, but his other series, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was in many ways easier for him to write because the story didn't constantly have to bend around itself to land jokes. He was also rather obsessed with computers and translating his stories to games. (This is the part I'd be really interested in reading in the updated version . . . 1988 was around that time when obsession with computers and technology was starting to go from something fantastical to more of an everyday experience).
I've read Hitchhiker's Guide several times, although I haven't picked it up in almost ten years now, so I think I'm due for a re-read. It will be interesting to read it with all this background knowledge for context (also, it will be interesting to read it now that I've got a functioning brain, as opposed to whatever it is I had back in high school).
Must read for Douglas Adams fans and Neil Gaiman completionists, but it might also be interesting reading for someone new to Gaiman or Adams, depending on how interested you are in behind-the-scenes-making-of stories. Anyway I liked it.
This book was an obvious stop on my quest to read the complete Neil Gaiman bibliography, not least of which because it's one of the first things he ever published, and also because it's really interesting as a Gaiman fan (and an Adams fan) to see Gaiman freaking out hardcore about Douglas Adams and his work. His love for The Hitchhiker's Guide and its ilk is painfully obvious in every word (many of which have turns of phrase that foreshadow Gaiman's own career), which elevates the book from one of those commercial fan-guides it might have been, to something genuinely insightful. It also helps that Gaiman seems to have had access to the man himself, along with the key players involved in getting Adams's stories out to the world.
According to the picture that Gaiman paints, Adams was a brilliant man who stepped into fame reluctantly, and almost by accident. He was notoriously obscenely late on delivering manuscripts (putting new context to his famous quote, "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by"), and he described the process of writing more akin to torture than creating art (or humor, as he liked to think of it). It was also interesting to see the differences he had with the various mediums and stories he created. He described writing Hitchhiker's Guide to be all about the jokes, but his other series, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was in many ways easier for him to write because the story didn't constantly have to bend around itself to land jokes. He was also rather obsessed with computers and translating his stories to games. (This is the part I'd be really interested in reading in the updated version . . . 1988 was around that time when obsession with computers and technology was starting to go from something fantastical to more of an everyday experience).
I've read Hitchhiker's Guide several times, although I haven't picked it up in almost ten years now, so I think I'm due for a re-read. It will be interesting to read it with all this background knowledge for context (also, it will be interesting to read it now that I've got a functioning brain, as opposed to whatever it is I had back in high school).
Must read for Douglas Adams fans and Neil Gaiman completionists, but it might also be interesting reading for someone new to Gaiman or Adams, depending on how interested you are in behind-the-scenes-making-of stories. Anyway I liked it.
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Unable to finish - found it slightly repetitive and rambling.
The life and afterlife of Douglas Adams
A very well written biography of Douglas Adams and his works that continue to live and grow even 20 years after his passing. A pity that this book was last updated in 2009 because I would have been interested in hearing how some of the more recent incarnations of Douglas's work came about and were received.
(disclaimer, I'd probably read and enjoy Neil Gaiman's collected grocery lists but he brings a lot of life, humor, and the absurdities of both to this book)
A very well written biography of Douglas Adams and his works that continue to live and grow even 20 years after his passing. A pity that this book was last updated in 2009 because I would have been interested in hearing how some of the more recent incarnations of Douglas's work came about and were received.
(disclaimer, I'd probably read and enjoy Neil Gaiman's collected grocery lists but he brings a lot of life, humor, and the absurdities of both to this book)