Quirky humour discussion

my favorite author..ever.

Val, Abram,

I couldn't agree more...Douglas Adams is a wonderfully funny writer. :)doug

I love Douglas Adams. Hitchhiker books are pure hysterical -- anyone read Dirk Gently? Delightfully baffling, and the funniest unsolvable mystery ever. How can you go wrong with ghosts trying to travel back in time and prevent thier murder? Also pizza, hypnotism, and electric monk's.

Ray,

I loved Dirk Gently - a delightful read - :)Doug

Douglas Adams is quite an interesting one to study. I work in IT with a bunch of geeks who love sci-fi and yet who aren't big fans of Adams. I, on the other hand, don't like Asimov or Clarke, yet Hitchhiker's Guide is my most favourite book ever. He's the sci-fi writer for those that don't like sci-fi!

I would suggest The Salmon of Doubt to anyone new to Adams, especially those who aren't particularly into Sci-Fi or Mystery.

I would also suggest Christopher Moore ... http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Not so much for the Sci-Fi, but the absurd humor close to Adams.

Yes. Chris Moore is great. "Lamb" is in a class by itself, IMHO. But they are all at least good.

I think a great many people who enjoy Douglas Adams's humor will enjoy Christopher Moore's work also. "Lamb" was outstanding. Moore has the same sideways view of life as Adams did and his characters are almost as memorable and endearing as Adams. Almost.

Elyse, Suzy, Bruce,

I agree that Christopher Moore is a great and funny writer in the Douglas Adams tradition. I do think though, that Douglas Adams is amazing - whenever I am in a predicament I often think of the words on the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" :"Don't Panic" - :)Doug

Doug,

Me, too! As do most of the people I work with. We even honor Towel Day. LOL

Suzy

Suzy,

How Wonderful to honor 'Towel Day' - It sounds like a fun place to work - :)Doug

Has anyone read Douglas Adams' "Last Chance to See"? It's a non-fiction work about his travels around the world to learn about endangered species. In his tradition, it's hilarious but you also learn a lot, and it kind of makes you sad to see all these amazing animals disappearing from the earth. One of my most favorite books ever.

I've read Last Chance to See and yes, it's great! You can find some similar wildlife-related shorts in The Salmon of Doubt.

Yes, Adams is an amazingly creative writer. He is sadly missed. I should try some Christopher Moore.

Whenever I write I aspire to be a fraction as good as Adams.

I am new to the group, and a life long fan of both Adams and Moore. Recently I have stumbled across Carl Hiaasen. Just as fun to read!

I loved Last Chance to See -- and I notice that Stephen Fry is now hosting a documentary with the same name on the BBC.

I want to see that! I wonder if I can get it in the US?

The website for it is here, though it looks like their online programming is only for UK viewers:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lastchancetosee/

I am a huge Douglas Adams fan, though I have to admit, I thought that the last 2 books of the Hitchhiker's "trilogy" really trailed off. The first 3, though, especially The Guide to the Galaxy were AWESOMELY funny. Vogon poetry, paranoid androids, 2-headed megalomaniacs... Hilarious!

I liked So Long And Thanks for All the Fish quite a bit, though I can see why you'd prefer the first three -- they're the most coherent. (Though that's a dodgy word when it comes to Adams.) :)

Hi all in this group.

I seem to have found some soulmates here. Massive DA fan and one of my most prized possessions is an autographed early edition of hhg 1. Adama was a massive influence on me deciding to (want to) be a writer.

I have to say that my favourites are the first two. Book 3 is okay and I don't care at all for the others. Dirk Gently I never quite figured out but Last Chance really restored my faith. I especially love the German/Latvian backpackers.

I could talk all day about this so love to hear back.

Agreed. Always a treat and a pleasure when I re-read his books.

Has anyone tried the new HHGG book by Eoin Colfer?

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they make as they fly by" ~ Douglas Adams

Re the new HHG book - I haven't been able to go there. I really feel like the thing had its day and even DA was really struggling by the end. I don't like to see the magic of the first 2 spoilt by later works which just didn't seem to need to be written and seem a bit exploitative - but that's my opinion and I guess if others enjoy them, then good luck to them.

And as for the recent film, I reckon the less said the better - I am quite fond of the old 80s TV version.

The radio shows are excellent too.

Agree - When the ABC (Australian version) broadcast them back in the 80s I taped them all. Except one ep they missed 'cos the Davis Cup was on so I never got it. Later on I got a copy of the scripts in book form and found what I missed.

What I really liked was how DA took some of the slightly less formed ideas in series 2 and really tightened them up for The Restaurant at the end of the Universe novelisation - a gem.

Radio is a massively underutilised medium for comedy.

I am ashamed to admit that I never got around to reading "Hitchhiker". I was made familiar with much of it years ago by an XBF who adored it. He wants his gravestone to read "Mostly Harmless" after a line in the book. I'm betting that if I spend too much time in this group, I may be coerced -- or at least gently prodded --- into reading it.:)

Cindy, I'm ashamed almost as much as you, because I started "Hitchhiker" and only got through a small portion of it. I liked it, but not as much as I like P.G. Wodehouse. Although some of the quotes I've seen from Douglas Adams are hilarious. He must have been a very funny speaker, because I've seen quotes from him that really crack me up.

Many of his best speaches, articles, and essays are collected in The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. I highly recommend it to anyone that doesn't like sci-fi or fantasy enough to read his fiction. Though, I must say, the Dirk Gently duology is a pair of excellent modern detective novels with a bit of speculative fiction tossed in for good measure.

I have to put my 3cents in on this one. Douglas Adams influenced my writing as much as any writer (Dave Barry would be another).

It's like Adams gave me the freedom to do ANYTHING in my books, be it a bad guy stunning someone by flashing his plumber's butt crack at them, or out of control lobster-like aliens from the moon making telemarketing calls, characters getting trapped in a washroom because they can't touch the doorknob after a non-handwasher touches it.

Adams made it possible for writers like me to use the impossible in our books.

What was totally cool was reviewers caught on and compared my books to HHG. Try to imagine how this felt.

Norm
http://www.normcowie.com

Douglas Adams is brilliant, but I prefer P.G. Wodehouse too. I've tried to bring an ever-so-English element into my book, The Cambridge List, though it's much more towards the dark humour end of the spectrum.

As far as Wodehouse goes, I love the retro-looking Everyman series.

Right - you've convinced me.

Will have to add Wodehouse to my to-read list

I can recommend David Lodge too.

Try Vish Puri detective series by Tarquin Hall...especially for those that like Wodehouse. ooh oooh ooh! everyone should try the alexander mcall smith series starting with Portuguese Irregular Verbs...so witty filled with implausible situations that are hilarious.

Love Douglas Adams...one of my all-time faves! Zaphod for president! If you like his brand of humor, check out almost anything by Christopher Moore (as someone above noted), Tom Robbins (a bit racier though!), and Terry Pratchet. Also try The War On Destiny by J. Sciancalepore.

So what's everyone's favorite of the Hitchhiker series? For some reason I laugh harder at RESTAURANT... than all of the others put together (though I enjoy them too, of course).

Agree - definitely Restaurant

I definitely think folks who like Adams should look into Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's characters are quite well-developed, but the quirky tone is similar. Also, to some extent, folks who like Adams might enjoy Jasper Fforde. I'm glad to see the recommendations for Christopher Moore.

Given the love readers have for writers like Adams, you'd think there would be more humorous sci-fi/fantasy writers available out there, but the truly good ones seem to be best found by word-of-mouth skulking around shady book nooks. :)

I second the Pratchett nomination, though you'll enjoy his books more if you read fantasy.

Hope you don't mind a bit of a plug here - my ebook novella Doodling has had a few Douglas Adams comparisions. And not just by me...

Just to save you the time in the shady book nooks.

Jenn wrote: "I definitely think folks who like Adams should look into Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's characters are quite well-developed, but the quirky tone is similar. Also, to some extent, folks who like Adam..."

I agree, Jenn., In fact, IMHO, Pratchett's a far better writer than Adams, but that's all a matter of taste. The reason there aren't a lot more humor writers around is that humor is damned hard to write well. If you're looking for other funny stuff, I can recommend highly a lot of the work of the late Robert Sheckley in the science fiction field, particularly Citizen in Space and Mindswap. Also some of the early work of William Peter Blatty before he got enmeshed in horror, like John Goldfarb, Please Come Home and I, Billy Shakespeare.

Wholeheartedly agree on the mention of Robert Sheckley, one of my all-time favourites. More satire than humour, perhaps, but as quirky as it gets :)

To Pratchett lovers specifically, I would recommend the unfortunately short series written by Sheckley together with another master of S/F, Roger Zelazny, known as the Millennial Contest, see...

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming
If at Faust You Don't Succeed
A Farce to Be Reckoned With

Mark wrote: "Has anyone tried the new HHGG book by Eoin Colfer?"

I read it... bought it... I think he tried too hard to emulate Adams' style and just oversold. It was too tedious for me.

Norm
http://www.normcowie.com

Jenn wrote: "I definitely think folks who like Adams should look into Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's characters are quite well-developed, but the quirky tone is similar. Also, to some extent, folks who like Adam..."

I'm not much of a Pratchett fan. I keep trying and the books keep falling a bit short for me. Same for Gaiman. I love Douglas Adams, though.

If you've got a Nook, my first book, The Adventures of Guy (re-released after having been traditionally published) is available for free ... for now. More than one reviewer remarked on HHGG comparisons.

Here's the link: http://bit.ly/olTQMt

Norm

http://www.normcowie.com

Thanks for the review of the Colfer HHGG Norm. That was my fear. I've had some very nice reviewers compare my stuff to Adams too, and it just makes me nervous, no matter how flattering.

He was an original.

You'll forgive me if I press the point a little further but, I forgot to mention this earlier, and just for the record, Robert Sheckley was a recognised influence and inspiration in Douglas Adams' writing.

Mark, Yes, I totally hear that. I think when humor writing crosses into the sci-fi/fantasy realm, Adams is the first name folks think of and it's the first fellow's name off their lips.

I've completely avoided mentioning his name in conjunction with my book promotion unless someone asks me about writers who've been inspiring. Hitch-Hiker's Guide is its own entity. Trying to make comparisons just doesn't become helpful.