[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]
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This is a very silly book. Earth is destroyed because aliens want to build a space highway and Earth is in the way. The President of the Galaxy has two heads and three arms. He rides a flying sofa and is incredibly stupid. And Arthur Dent, the last (maybe) human alive, goes on a crazy space adventure with his best friend Ford Prefect and a spaceship that makes the most mathematically improbable things happen.
Hitchhiker’s Guide is a classic and is the first in a series of very silly books. Like other SF titles, this book is full of weird alien names and cultures, and therefore may be difficult read. Also, there is some British English and a very few cultural references that you may not understand. I often tell students to do “extensive reading”(多読). However, this might be a good book for “close reading” (精読). Choose one chapter or even just a few pages and try to understand 100%. Adams is a skillful writer, and you can learn quality English from reading his work.
My two cents: This book is a cultural “touchstone.” When people mention “the number 42” or “babelfish” you will know what they are talking about!
