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Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Neil Gaiman

I promise this is the last Neil Gaiman book I read for a long time. There are two reasons for this. I don't have any more of his books that I haven't read before. I also don't think there are really any other Neil Gaiman books to read. I've pretty much gone through the main body of his work.

This book is fairly distant from most of Gaiman's other books though. It is funny, to be sure, but it's subject matter is funny, so that isn't particularly surprising. Douglas Adams was a unique talent, and Gaiman does his best to pay tribute to all of his life's work. Most interesting was seeing the way Adams adapted his creation to each new medium he tried. Radio, novels, theatre, television, movies, computer games, illustrated books: each required a different treatment uniquely suited to what the medium had to offer and what it couldn't do. Also interesting is seeing the influence Monty Python had on pretty much everything in British entertainment of this time period. For example the initial press release for the hardcover copy of Hitchhiker's contained the following praise:

Really entertaining and fun - John Cleese

Much funnier than anything John Cleese has ever written - Terry Jones

I know for a fact that John Cleese hasn't read it - Graham Chapman

Who is John Cleese? - Eric Idle

Really entertaining and fun - Michael Palin