I may be "Douglas Adams"-ed out...

I like Douglas Adams...when I was in High school, the "Hitchhikers Guide" had just come out in England. I was also watching D.A. edited episodes of "Doctor Who" on WTTW 11. A couple years later, my first exposure to "The Guide" was the BBC TV series (as it was on just before Dr. Who). I was taken with the few episodes I saw, and borrowed the first two books ("The Guide" and "Restaurant") from a buddy. I read them on the bus/train to and from tech school. I remembered enjoying them fully...though not really discussing them much (as not many others I knew had read them). I have enjoyed the occasional in-joke with other D.A. readers about babelfish, improbability drives, and intelligent shades of blue...but that's about it. For me, D.A.'s work on his T.V. efforts were foremost in my mind (His editing stretch with Terrance Dicks on Dr. Who was some of the best Dr. Who ever).

Well, with "Hitchhikers Guide" coming to a theater near me, I decided to re-visit the books. Not just the first two...but all of them. I'm now 3/4 of the way through "Life, the universe and everything"...and I have to say....
I may be Douglas Adams-ed out...

This is not a book series you read back to back (even though it has been packaged that way). D. A. had a wonderful dry wit, undeniable intelligence, and a incredible imagination...

...but reading them back to back with 20+ more years of life experience since last time...you start to see the pattern
...the pattern of the setup...a whole chapter dedicated to some seemingly needless information that comes to light two chapters later...and I realized why this seemed so incredibly familiar and repetitive after a while. It's the same thing J.K. Rowling does in her Harry Potter books...only she does it much better...and her payoff is usually at the end of the book instead of two chapters later. You'd think this would make me think less of J.K.R., but all it really does is make it harder to continue reading D. A.

Before it was released, I really wanted to run out and see the movie in the first week, but cramming D.A. for the last two weeks has left me bereft of desire due to some hindsight-based disappointment.

It's wiggy...some things do seem the same as years ago (like watching Dr. Who reruns on BBC America with my 12 year old), but somethings are not better (or even equal) being revisited.

I think maybe I should stop reading now, and just go back to using my decades-old memories concerning the late Mr. Adams.

http://www.douglasadams.com/