I've been wanting to read this book since I watched the movie when I was younger, and I'm glad that I finally got around to it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is like a breath of fresh air, and a highly entertaining one at that. 
 Like many people, my introduction to this story was the movie. So, naturally, as I began reading the story, I imagined Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, pottering around his house with a hangover, mostly oblivious to the bulldozer just outside his front garden. I usually don't like picturing actors as characters in books, but as I read and learned more about Trillian (or Tricia, rather), Ford and Zaphod Beeblebrox, I realised that the movie had been very well cast. So, on I went, pottering about with Arthur Dent until he noticed the bulldozer and decided to lie down in the mud in front of it. 
 One of my favourite things about this book is the way that Douglas Adams has approached imagery and description. When I first opened the omnibus, I flicked through the pages, eventually landing on what I think was Chapter 31 of maybe the second book? Anyway, the whole first paragraph was this: "If you took a couple of David Bowies and stuck one of the David Bowies on top of the other David Bowie, then attached another David Bowie to the end of each of the arms of the upper of the first two David Bowies and wrapped the whole business up in a dirty beach robe you would then have something which didn't exactly look like John Watson, but which those who knew him would find hauntingly familiar." I was hooked then and there. I love off-beat writing, and THGGTG was brimming with it. There was a moment when Arthur noted that a chair looked like it was made out of a stegosaurus ribcage only for someone to say "That chair is made out of a stegosaurus ribcage" on the very next line and I actually laughed out loud. It could be seen as a very simple, gimmicky (perhaps even lazy) way to write, but I really responded to it. 
 My only complaint is that I wish I hadn't watched the movie first. I would love to know how my brain would have visualised the Vogons or Marvin, or even the Heart of Gold, but I'm still kinda happy that I got to hum "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" as I read the book. (Oh, and maybe there were some parts of the book that were a tad too brief but right now I'm too happy with the book to care). 
 I'm not sure if I'll read something else just now or move straight onto The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but it's very likely I'll keep going. After all, there's something really magical about the journey of Arthur Dent and there are some questions in the plot that I'd love to find answers for. :)