42

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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What’s 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams, Anyway?

from The Publisher:

When Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In 42, compiled by Douglas’s long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time.

Douglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing – it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought the very first Mac in the UK; musings on how the internet would disrupt the CD-Rom industry, among others.

42 also features archival material charting Douglas’s school days through Cambridge, Footlights, collaborations with Graham Chapman, and early scribbles from the development of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker’s and Dirk Gently. Alongside details of his most celebrated works are projects that never came to fruition, including the pilot for radio programme They’ll Never Play That on the Radio and a space-inspired theme park ride.

Douglas’s personal papers prove that the greatest ideas come from the fleeting thoughts that collide in our own imagination, and offer a captivating insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers and most enduring storytellers.

A Few Short-Comings (only one of which is of any substance)

Not every piece of handwriting is transcribed—and no, I’m not referring to the more than a dozen examples of his signature (an interesting evolution to be sure). The majority of bits of handwriting are printed under, next-to, or following to make them legible. But not all—and there are a few things that I can’t quite suss out. And if you’d ever seen my handwriting, you’d know that I can figure out what a lot of messy writing says.

The other drawbacks are that the chapters covering Dirk Gently (in the various books) and The Last Chance to See (radio program and book) are too short. I could’ve used twice the material on both of those.

I Didn’t Expect to Get Misty-Eyed

Throughout the book are letters written by people who knew Adams to him, describing their relationship, what he meant to them, and how his death affected them. The first one, by Stephen Fry, is used as the foreword and threw me—I didn’t realize I was going to have an emotional experience while reading the book.

These were wonderful and heartfelt and make the reader feel close to someone they’ve only admired from afar. Sure, it’s a parasocial relationship at best (for almost everyone who reads the book), but especially reading those letters, it feels far less “para.”

An Overly Specific Suggestion

Do not read this book while recovering from abdominal surgery.

It is large (8.5″ X 11.9″ X 1.2″). For a book, it is heavy (roughly 4 pounds). There is no comfortable way to hold this book while reclining if you cannot rest it on your stomach.

That said, the large size, the high-quality paper, and the full-color pages are a wonderful way to present this material, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, what did I think about 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams?

So, really, at this point, should I be allowed to rate books related to Douglas Adams? Probably not. But, this is my blog, so I get to set the rules.

There were some things that I’m not sure why Davies included, a couple of things I didn’t appreciate as much as I should’ve (some older British pop culture references/names that I’m too American to get/recognize). But by and large, I was captivated and entertained. I bet Davies had a blast compiling this and it couldn’t have been easy cutting some material (although I bet there was a bunch that he wondered why anyone hung onto in the first place).

While I (semi-) joked about the Dirk Gently and Last Chance to See chapters being too short, they really were the most interesting to me. I’ve read many, many things about THHGTTG over the years, and have seen a good amount about his career and education before then. but I’ve come across very little about these others—so I learned more, got more insight, and whatnot. I really could’ve read chapters that were three times as long on both counts.

Truth be told, the book could’ve been three times as long and I’d have been happy, too. Sure, you’d need a weightlifting belt to carry it around that way, so maybe it’s best that Davies stopped when he did.

You need to read Adams thoughts on the future of books—specifically ebooks. Other than the amount of money going to authors…he nailed it. You get great insight into how his mind worked by seeing early drafts (and the way he’d write to himself to keep going when it got difficult).

I found this to be mind-bogglingly delightful. Which is pretty much what I expected, true. But there’s expecting to appreciate a book and then getting to experience it and discover that you were right. It’s is kind of a doubling of pleasure.

If you’re a fan of Adams, you’re going to find at least one thing here that will interest you more than you anticipated. If you’re a big fan of Adams, you’re in for a treat. He was the hoopiest of hoopy froods, and this book gives you a glimpse into just how hoopy that is.

Disclaimer: I contributed to the crowd-funding to get this book published (my name’s right there on p. 314), so who knows if that makes me biased. But then again…when am I not?