The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams

I had heard about this book from too many people to recount here. This book had been on my list for a long long time before I finally got around to ordering it. I knew close to nothing about the book. So when I searched online and found a "complete and unabridged" edition, I thought it would be the complete and unabridged edition. Even though it was, turned out that H2G2 is a 'trilogy' in six parts (as of this date). But then this book would let me know whether I wanted to continue with the others in the series.

It took me two or three odd sittings to wrap up the book. Not something that happens frequently now a days, given the kind of schedule I have. It was partly because the book had grabbed my interest and partly because it was the most senseless thing I had ever read! The book is indeed meant for children. The immature humour was entertaining for a change but I am sure I would not have managed to endure it in long doses. The book is scrawling with sentences that make no sense either grammatically or logically. But then that is the charm of this book. After a tiring day, what better than occupying oneself with a book that lets the brain snooze for a while?

Despite the mayhem of senselessness, there is in fact an underlying plot to the novel. Arthur Dent, the protagonist, finds himself rescued by his best friend, Ford Prefect, when Earth is vaporised to make way for a new inter galactic highway. Ford is in fact an alien from around Betelgeuse who has been stranded on Earth while researching for the new edition of an extremely handy book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which has information about everything. After they hitch a ride to get off Earth just in time and are thrown out in space, they find themselves on a spaceship with Ford's semi-cousin and the Galactic President, Zeephod Beeblebrox who is on the run. Thus begin's Arthur's first unearhlt adventure.

Although not wholly remarkable, the book was fun to read. It is one of those senseless books that you remember for its whacky concepts and funny dialogues. I do intend to finish the series, but not immediately.

From Hell - Alan Moore

I bought this book in a blind sale, not at all aware that it was a graphic novel. And since I had never tried graphic novels before, I was not particularly inclined to start off with this one as soon as it arrived. Therefore it stayed in my book shelf as I finished one book after the other but could not get myself to pick up this one. Until one fine day, I did.

'From Hell' was known to me as a Depp movie. One that I did not particularly remember, but had a faint recollection of. I knew it was about Jack the Ripper in some sort of way. So I picked up the book thinking that it would replay the movie for me, but it did not. In fact, the book and the movie were far far apart! I had to watch the movie again just to compare. And it was the novel that held me in awe. The motion picture looked almost puerile in wake of the work that Alan Moore had done. The book looks at the historic tragedy through the eyes of Stephen Knight, whose theory propounded that Jack the Ripper was a conspiracy to cover up the traces of a royal baby. The book has Sir William Gull, the alleged Ripper, as the protagonist and traces the course of the events through his chains of thoughts.

The novel starts with the inception of the frivolity that started it all. Prince Eddy marries a shop girl and fathers a child of hers. Sir William Gull, the royal physician, is commissioned with the task of covering up for Prince Eddy to avoid a scandal. Sir Gull, a freemason by heart, disillusioned since a heart stroke, takes up the task with zest. He puts the shop girl, Annie Crook, into a mental facility after making her insane surgically. And when it is later found that four prostitutes know about the secret and are creating a nuisance, he sets out to silent them. In doing so, he performs a ritual that he believes will show him the real truth. He gives birth to the legend of Jack the Ripper.

Alan Moore was astounding in more than one respect. There is apparently a humongous amount of research that he has put into the book. It is evident in the appendix where almost every scene is explained with a bibliographical detail. So much that I gave up reading the details after three odd chapters. Moore also brings his characters very vividly to life. In no way did it feel that he relied on the graphics to make his novel sell (they just made the book fatter I guess). Anyhow, Moore is up top on my list at the moment. In fact, I am expecting another book of his in a couple of days.