meaning of life 42?

[Ickmeister]

What book is it that says the meaning of life is 42?

[Isagel]

[AbdoRinbo]

Google it.

[Jay]

As far I've found just this:

NEW YORK - In his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, Douglas Adams joked that the meaning of life is 42. He was way off. It's really about 30,000. That's the number of genes in the human genome, the chemical cookbook for making a human being that is contained in the DNA in almost every one of our cells.
Might that be the book you're looking for?

Okay, another one:

Eric Hardwick 09012001: What is the meaning of life?
Velodrome say: The most widely believed answer to the meaning of life is 42. This is wrong. According to the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy, this is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. The actual meaning of life is a much smaller number, probably 14.

Hey, found an interesting line:

Some people think that even if God existed, he would have to die, while others that even if he did not existed, we would have to invent him. Others believe that the meaning of life is 42. I think they are all rigth.

I don't know if this book is what you were looking for, but found something about the book as well, if you're interested, try this site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/drama/progpages/hitchhikers.shtml

[den]

Good. I have something to look forward to. :P

[ihrocks]

"42" is definitely from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." If you've never heard a broadcast of the original radio program, you life is incomplete.

Of course, I'm still only 40. I've got two years to go yet. :)

ihrocks

[Ickmeister]

ok, that's the book. thanks

[Munro]

It was one of the funniest books I've ever read, and I loved listening to the radio-show as well. Apparently the television series was quite bad, so I won't bother seeing it.
And, just for the topic's sake, here's one of my favourite quotes from the novels:

'Now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful [the Babel fish] could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The arguement goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," say Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't though of that" and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.'

Ah-hahahaha. I strongly recommend it to anyone who wished science fiction was more funny.

[Jay]

Hi guys, I even found a copy of the book in ouf Uni library (but just in Czech), it has two volumes?
Never heard the radio show and probably never would :(.

[ihrocks]

Jay,

There's actually three or more books, I've forgotten now. How I wish Adams was still around to create more.

ihrocks

[Jay]

Thanks :D.

[IWilKikU]

The series is entitled The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A trilogy in four parts.
The four parts are:
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Life, the Universe and Everything
The Resturaunt at the End of the Universe
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish

I believe that a fifth volume was published after Douglas Adams died, but I'm not sure about that.

[AbdoRinbo]

Fashionably late . . . ;)

[Jay]

Now I know what to look for... Thanks

[Chava]

Th fifth part was published before he died as Mostly Harmless. To those of you which have not read it, but only the original four, i would strongly advise you to go and complete your lives, because the fourth book just really brings it all together.... He was writing The Salmon of Doubt when he died. It was later published incompletely.

[Chava]

Okay... It just occured to me how old this thread is.

[Jay]

Heya, doesn't matter, thread-resurrection is cool :p

[Snukes]

I personally think the conclusion of Mostly Harmless is one of the most brilliant endings of a book/series ever written.

Mostly Harmless: fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy.

Great man, Douglas Adams. :)

And, as it turns out, they're making a new movie. The first time they tried I think it was a mini-series. I personally have my doubts, but that's usually the case when they try to do movies of books I like. Especially ones featuring three armed aliens and flying whales...

[Chava]

I just realised i made a mistake, it should have read the fifth book brings it all together...

To those of you which have not read it, but only the original four, i would strongly advise you to go and complete your lives, because the fourth book just really brings it all together.... .
Indeed, the ending is subliminal.... it was really spectacular....

[Chris Marie]

;)Hit chhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[imthefoolonthehill]

congrats, Chris. You just answered a question that was settled 5 years ago.

You must have been doing some serious forum diving. :-)