42: Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything

by Peter Gill

For many, many years readers have wondered: why is the number 42 the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything? What was Douglas Adams thinking when wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? After 10 years of research amateur numerological sleuth and Douglas Adams fan Peter Gill can finally he can reveal the truth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

341 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2011

Reviews

[Evan E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

More informational than funny, which doesn't make the book bad, but I was expecting a few more Douglass-Adams-isms, per se.

[Phillip Goodman]

This book represents a continuation of my obsession with all things Douglas Adams and indeed Douglas Adamsy. coming off my train home after having purchased it in Kings Cross station i was 42 pages into it, i'm sure Mr Gill must have arranged the pages in such a way as to facilitate the glorious event and i thank him for it.

[Jim Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A common question about Douglas Adams’ famous Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is just why Adams chose the number 42 as the answer to life, the universe and everything. In a charming trivia book, author Peter Gill takes 50 pages or so to look into the story of the book and the author and another 250 to find occurrences of 42 in the worlds of sport, crime, science and a wide range of other fields.

Everyone will have their own personal favourite facts and figures from this excellent collection – my vote for the most interesting just about goes to the bit about the alumni of Chicago’s Forty-Two Gang and former leader Sam Giancana’s links to JFK and Fidel Castro. Intrigued? You should be…

There are several points at which Gill plays rather fast and loose with the number – notably when talking about cricket, with the quote ‘’The first law prevents the use of 42 fielders, or less specifically all numbers over eleven.’’ Thanks to a bright and breezy writing style, he gets away with this – if he’d been more ruthless about cutting it down to actual 42’s, we’d have lost out on learning about the Polynesian game of kirikiti so I can forgive him for it. Similarly, 4.2 and the football score 4-2 are considered fair game and when it’s used as an excuse to inform us that Geoff Hurst unveiled a statue in Baku to Tofic Bahkramov, the Azerbaijani – NOT Russian! – linesman who gave the goal in that famous World Cup Final, that’s fine by me. Especially since I’ve managed to get at least three pub quiz questions written from that fact.

While the majority of the book is equally likely to appeal to you whether you’re a fanatical fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide or a total novice, the last 50 pages and the appendix ‘’The 42 explanations’’ can be enjoyed by everyone but are likely to be the part which pushes this into ‘must-read’ territory for fervent fans of Douglas Adams. We have here plenty on the author and the book, most notably the thank you letter he wrote to the author of the book which inspired him, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe, which is absolutely fascinating to read, and a list of possible explanations for the choice, my favourite of which I will resist spoiling for you (but it relates to a classic song featured in a Doris Day musical…)

Very high recommendation.

[Žarko]

Listicle sa dešavanjima/pojavama/osobama nategnuto uvezanim sa brojem četeresdva sigurno već i postoji na crackedu ili gdeveć...

Dakle knjiga koja bukvalno nikom ne treba, nije trebala da postoji, i mogla bi se sažeti u kraći članak...

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

No legit excuse but only read beginning. Enjoyed the humor!

[JR Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the trivia was fun and the humor was fine, the thread connecting it all did not pull me in.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not really sure what I was expecting here; a collection of reasons why 42 was such a good number to pick as the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything or examples of Douglas Adams predicting advances in science fiction that turned out to be true in science fact! Either way I started reading this with my expectations way too high and so was disappointed in the end. This is by no measure a bad book but I just feel that it could have been so much better.

[Darren Humphries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite wanting to like this book through a shared affinity for Douglas Adams and small lancashire towns, I found much of what was contained to be trivia trawled from the internet with only a passing acquaintance with the eponymous number. The stars are awarded solely for the last bit of the book which has some interesting and fun stuff about Adams and his famous number.

[Anandh]

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[Frenchiejnr · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average book. It can sometimes be quite puzzling how some facts relate to 'the number' but it has some interesting theories about 42

[Robert Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglas Adams and the Hitchhikers Guide have taken such a large part of my life, the number 42 in particular, that they have to have some importance. Don't they?

[Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit contrived with very tenuous links to 42

[Dan Hallington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in places, but a bit of a one trick pony...