This is a very funny book. It's short, maybe a 2-hour read. The author's style of humor is a major factor, as is the inventiveness of some of the absurdity.

Many friends of mine also liked it a lot. However, I have met those who simply don't get it. I think you can tell in one chapter if you will hate it. Adams has a lot to say and he gets a lot of it into this book. It's mostly comedy laced with social commentary in a scifi setting; I don't care much for scifi as a class, but I liked this a lot.

Everything I read which came after the Hitchhiker's Guide was pretty lame. You have to be fairly die-hard Adams fan to like them. It seemed to me the books were written because a deadline had to met, or some such; Hitchhiker's Guide is clearly not like that. I quit fairly early; it's possible that recent publications may be better.