The Hitchhiker's Guide - An Absurd, Melancholy Masterpiece 

i really love how fitting it is that they just die at the end, but in my dismay after i first read the books, i found out about the ending that you mentioned from the radio show. i also find that ending to be fitting aswell, because them all being saved by some unforeseen sci-fi mumbo-jumbo is just what always happens. p.s. i also like that ending because fenchurch is the best character dont at me p.p.s still haven't stumbled upon "and another thing" damn you colfer for not being popular enough to get in my second hand book store (edit "redio"

apparently 6*9=42 in base 13 - which would indicate that the progenitor species behind our universe had 13 fingers or tentacles. I have a Douglas Adams story: I got given a book by my dad called Mindswap by Robert Sheckley (it's great). I met Adams when he was touring Last Chance to See - I approached him after and asked him if he'd ever read Mindswap, he said no. I said, 'That's an amazing coincidence because the main protagonist hires a holistic detective to track down his missing body, which has been kidnapped, and his technique of detection bares an uncanny similarity to Dirk Gentley's". Adams walked off looking shifty. 6 months or so later, i spotted a new edition of mindswap, which had been out of print for many years, in Waterstones. curious, I picked it up. On the front cover was an endorsement by Adams - "The most influential sci fi book I've ever read." perhaps I had some influence too :)