on the book...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 30 years on: why we should still be reading it | Books | guardian.co.uk:

It's now 30 years since the publication of the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel. Yet though the subsequent period of Hitchhiker-mania – by 1984 encompassing two radio series, four novels, a TV series, computer game and three major stage productions – may be over, the phenomenon has proved as indestructible as its constantly reincarnated bit-part character, Agrajag. A fifth novel was published in 1992 and the franchise even survived the 2001 death of creator Douglas Adams: a film version and three further radio series have appeared within the last five years.

This month, the story has once again hit the headlines thanks to the imminent publication of a sixth Hitchhiker's novel, And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer, the bestselling Irish author most famous for his Artemis Fowl series. Judging by the frenetic blogosphere coverage it has generated, many are still obsessed by this tale of intergalactic high jinks. Others, however, remain immune to the charms of a story most famous for its manically depressed robot and comedic use of the number 42. After all, isn't it just for science fiction geeks?