No, no, no ...

... No, no, no, no!
The Hitchhiker Trilogy was a defining part of my latter high school years. The books that is. I later listened to the radio series (GOLD!) and later still the television series, (OK-ish). The movie was, of course, total and utter crap, really, really terrible.
But the books, those three magnificent books, they made me laugh when nothing else did. The years between 14 and 16 or so are pretty horrible, especially when you are a girl, particularly when you are a square peg not even trying to fit into the round hold most of your contemporaries are fitting into. There's not much to smile or laugh about.
And then my friend K handed me The Hitchhiker' Guide to the Galaxy. It was brilliantly clever, funny, and a little bit poke the establishment in the eye. I loved it. I still love it. It's one of those books you return to again and again when you need a giggle. Language from the book still pepper my life, things are still, "froody", we regularly sip jinantonix, and when referring to milk, I often add the clarification, "as squeezed, from a cow".
I rushed out and bought myself The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, The Universe and Everything, and loved them too. Light was shone onto my blighted, dark and terrible teenage life.*
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless followed. They never lived up to the first three, seemed a little like Mr Adams was just going through the motions, bolstering his bank account (who can blame him really?). Ok reads, but I've never bothered to re-read, if you see what I mean.
I will NOT be spending any of my pretty Australian dollars on Eoin Colfer's efforts. WILL NOT.



*or so it seemed at the time**, looking back, of course, I had it easy, so easy I actually feel slightly guilty about it sometimes.
** I was a teenage girl FFS!