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When I get together with other literary types, which I manage less frequently than I would like these days, we speak in glowing terms of our current favorite books. We try to outdo each other with the scholarly works on our bedside tables and the caliber of our reading list. (James M. McPherson’s biography of Abraham Lincoln’s war years, Tried By War, is terrific, by the way.) When the discussion rolls around to all-time favorite, I normally tout J.R.R. Tolkein’s incredible Lord of the Rings as mine.

Now, just between us, I have a confession to make. Tolkein is not my favorite author, although I do enjoy his works immensely. No, I think if I were trapped on a deserted island with the works of only one writer, I would have to choose Douglas Adams.

The late Douglas Adams wrote a series of books, collectively known as The Hitchhiker’s Trilogy. If you’re familiar with his work, you wouldn’t find it at all surprising that there he wrote five books in the series while still referring to it as The Hitchhiker’s Trilogy. It is exactly that sideways look at the universe that makes his writing such a delight.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the funniest, most enjoyable read I have ever picked up. The series chronicles the misadventures of Arthur Dent, an English man whose home was destroyed to make way for a bypass on precisely the same day that the Earth was destroyed by an alien race to make way for a “hyper-space bypass”.

Destroying the entire planet within the first few pages of the book is just the beginning of the fun for Adams. Arthur’s journey’s through space and time take him back to the origins of the human race and forward to the last remaining commercial venture in existence, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, which is also the title to the second book in the series.

In the final analysis, we read for the pleasure that it brings us, not for bragging rights. And in all my years of reading, I can’t think of any book that has brought me more pleasure than the Hicthhiker’s Guide.

But let’s just keep that between us…