Book 8/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Photo courtesy of pandora.ca

In honor of Towel Day a week and a half ago, I decided that for my next book in the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, I would read the next book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.

I didn't like this one as much as I liked the first two in the series, and I guess it was about as good as the third.  I still love Douglas Adams and his humor, but I just think the plots aren't quite up to par with the first two stories.

I really, really enjoyed the part about the sandwiches in British pubs being horrible.  I mean, seriously, this is just great:  "There is a feeling which persists in England that making a sandwich interesting, attractive, or in any way pleasant to eat is something sinful that only foreigners do." Hilarious!  And then, couple paragraphs later:  

It is by eating sandwiches in pubs at Saturday lunchtime that the British seek to atone for whatever their national sins have been.  They're not altogether clear what those sins are, and don't want to know either.  Sins are not the sort of things one wants to know about.  But whatever sins there are are amply atoned for by the sandwiches they make themselves eat.

This man really is a comedic genius, as well as a writing genius!  I also really enjoyed the story that Arthur told Fenchurch about the time a man ate his biscuits.

Image from my shirt - courtesy of snorgtees.com

All in all, I still love these books and the stories and characters in them, but this one, along with Life, the Universe and Everything, just weren't as good as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  I do, however, have a shirt with this book's title on it - I bought it after seeing the 2005 movie version of Hitchhiker's Guide, and since I love that movie so much, I couldn't not buy the shirt when I saw it.  Unfortunately, I've gained some weight since then and my goal is to get back into that shirt!