70. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

What a strange book ...
In the first chapter, Arthur Dent is upset that bulldozers are about to demolish his house. His neighbor, Ford Prefect (an alien who's been posing as an out of work actor on earth), comes over and tells Arthur that he has to tell Arthur the most important thing he's ever heard ... that the earth is about to be demolished to make space for a freeway. Suddenly, the loss of Arthur's house doesn't seem that terrible ...
The rest of the book is about Arthur and Ford's adventures as they travel through the galaxy. Some parts of this book were just downright strange ... maybe they were above my head, or not just my kind of humor? Although I do know that I'm not much of a sci-fi fan, except for Star Trek (I know, go figure). But it definitely did have its funny points. One of my favorites:

A voice comes in and announces that "the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route" ... and that "regrettably, [earth] is one of those scheduled for demolition." When the people of earth start panicking and objecting, the voice tells them that all of the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in Alpha Centauri for fifty years ... so they've "had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now ... What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? For heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light-years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams."

I also like this part:

"One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you all right? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behavior. If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months' consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favor of a new one. If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working."

There are some die hard Douglas Adams fans out there, so even though I was left a bit bewildered ... maybe it was just me. Give this book a try :)