The Irresponsible Reader - I Read (a lot) and then Rant, Rave and maybe Review

The Best of the Best from 13 Years of The Irresponsible Reader
It was 13 years ago today that I first posted something to The Irresponsible Reader. I still can’t believe that I’ve stuck with it that long (I mentioned it to my wife the other day and it set her back a step)—even more improbable is that you, reader, are here. Whether you’ve been around for a few weeks or some years—my mind is boggled by it. Thanks for that, truly.

Last year, I commemorated the day by combining all my “Favorite Reads from Genre X” from Januarys past into one MEGA-LIST, which I’ve dutifully updated to include 2025 reads.

So MEGA that I truly don’t have a count. So MEGA I had to put a “Read More” link in it so it didn’t bog down the main page. Also so large, that I’m doing annoying things like overusing all caps and the word “mega.”

(a retread of last year’s joke, but I like it, so expect it to repeat for at least another couple of years.

It is a very strange list—authors that have no business next to each other, strange genre leaps, and a couple of books I’d largely forgotten about. Still, these are books that I’ve shouted about before and that I really want to draw your attention to—go read some of these!

This is definitely a work in progress. I’m going to continue to refine this list a bit in the future (not changing any selections—although I might add some from the year or two I didn’t post a “best of”/”favorite” list), just refining it—making it look better, polish some of the comments (I’ve done some of that this year), and that kind of thing. My goal is to have this in a format I like by the 15th Anniversary—assuming anyone’s actually still reading me then.

Amongst Our Weapons

by Ben Aaronovitch

My original post
Any installment in this series is a strong contender for a favorite of the year even before I open it, and this one is a great example of why. While telling a pretty strong story, Aaronovitch expands this world and the reader’s understanding of it, a whole new magic system, and seemingly introduces the next major story arc for the series. We get to see almost every major (and more than a few minor) characters, too. For a fan, this book was a heckuva treat.

False Value

by Ben Aaronovitch

My original post
After wrapping up the overarching plotline from books 1-7, what do you do for book 8? Something completely different. If you were to draw a Venn diagram with circles for Charles Babbage/Ada Lovelace, Artificial General Intelligence, and Wizardry—the overlap is where you’d False Value. Who wants more? The mix of contemporary cutting-edge technologies and Newtonian magic is just fantastic.

Throw in more Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy references than is healthy and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Lies Sleeping

by Ben Aaronovitch

My original post
I’ve read all the comics (at least collected in paperback), listened to all the audiobooks, read the books at least once . . . I’m a Rivers of London/Peter Grant fan. Period. Which means two things—1. I’m in the bag already for this series and 2. When I say that this is the best of the bunch, I know what I’m talking about. Aaronovitch writes fantastic Urban Fantasy and this is his best yet. The series has been building to this for a while, and I honestly don’t know what to expect next. Great fight/action scenes, some genuine laughs, some solid emotional moments . . . this has it all. Everything you’ve come to expect and more.

The Goblin Emporer

by Katherine Addison

To say I was daunted by the incredibly detailed pronunciation guide and information about names before the novel is to put it mildly, but that went away almost immediately. This is a wonderful work–such an intricate web of courtly manners and rules (written and unwritten), a murder plot, a coup or two, and some geeky engineers. Okay, that’s a bad way to try to describe this. I read this a couple of months ago, and already want to re-read it. Once I got into this novel I didn’t want to leave.

Chain-Gang All-Stars

by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

My original post
If there’s a book I’ve recommended more frequently this year, I can’t think of it. I’ve also bought more copies of it to give away than any other. At the core, this is a satire and critique of the American culture–particularly as it relates to sports, mass entertainment, and (most importantly) the carceral system. Pitting convicted felons against each other in gladiatorial fights-to-death, selling merch featuring them, turning them into Reality TV personalities between bouts…Adjei-Brenyah holds up the worst of the US to look at.

It’s a book about death—violent death at the hands of violent people who only hope to go on so they can kill again—However, in a serious way the book is really about life. It’s a celebration of life, a call to protect it, a call to see it for what it is. It’s a reminder that “where life is precious, life is precious.” It’s impossible to read this without being moved–perhaps to action. But it’s also a visceral and exciting read that can entertain you without forcing you to think deeply about what it wants you to.

Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American

by Wajahat Ali

My original post
I’m just going to remix some of what I said originally, this book was a great mix of memoir, social commentary, and satire—with a little sprinkling of a more general humor thrown in. The way he shifted between the genres was fairly seamless and quite effective—his own story (and that of his parents) were good illustrations of the societal ills he wanted to point to. Ali’s story is the kind that Americans love to tell and hear about success—even if his telling points to many of the flaws in our society. Through grit, determination, perseverance, and endurance, Ali pushes through all sorts of cultural, societal, legal, medical, and circumstantial challenges to arrive where he is. Because he believes in what we can be as a people, based on our (incredibly inconsistently applied and demonstrated) ideals and aspirations. It’s the kind of story we need to see, hear, and read more of.

Algospeak:
How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language

by Adam Aleksic

My original post
Language in general—but English particularly—is a constantly-changing thing, and these changes are happening faster and faster all the time. Algospeak is a great look at the hows and whys of a lot of the current evolutionary processes. It is about more than language—it’s also about how the Internet changes the way we think and express ourselves in general. And therefore, how society changes (which leads to Internet changes, and other circle-of-life things).

Aleksic has obvious expertise and passion for the subject (look at just one of his videos). He’s also active in these areas. It’s a great read, informative and entertaining. Hard to ask for more.

Amari and the Night Brothers

by B. B. Alston

My original post
I’m a tiny bit worried that recency bias got this one on the list. But, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

This is a delightful story about a young girl from the “wrong” part of Atlanta being recruited by her missing/presumed dead brother into a Hogwarts/MIB mashup, overcoming odds, making friends, saving the day by doing all the sorts of things that young teen protagonists have to do (with a little support from the grown-ups who are supposed to be stopping her), but mostly through grit. The book is written with a sense of joy and hope, while never losing sight of what Amari has to overcome in terms of her own circumstances as well as the specific villainy.

Also, and I can’t stress this enough, there’s a weredragon. What more do you need?

Nice Places by Vincent Chu: Traveling Far So Easily

By HCNewton

On May 28, 2026

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

Nice Places

by Vincent Chu

DETAILS:
Publisher: Forest Avenue Press
Publication Date: June 2, 2026
Format: eARC
Length: 296 pg.
Read Date: May 11-14, 2026

What’s Nice Places About?

When we meet Georgie, he’s about to quit his job—but his boss fires him first. It was a mutual thing, really.

Georgie has a plan—he’s going to take a year and travel the world. He got a job right out of high school and has spent more than a decade at the company—he wants to grab some of that life experience so many people grab in their late teens/early twenties. He’s knocked off course from that attempt before he makes his first flight—and stumbles into something stranger.

He meets a mixed media artist named Ant. She’s working on her M.A. and is in search of a thesis project. Some silly thing that Georgie tries inspires her—and the two concoct a crazy plan that will suit Georgie’s quest for an experience and her thesis.

Odd times ensue. And a friendship develops between the two of them that will alter the courses of their lives.

Why did I pick this up? Why did I keep reading?

Picked it up because Chu asked me nicely, and because I had fond (and vague) memories of a short story collection.

I stuck with it for two reasons—once you get into Chu’s writing, you don’t want to leave until it’s done. Chu doesn’t have a flashy style, or snappy dialogue, or a tight pace (this book would be ruined by any of those, these are not critiques)—but his writing is solid, appealing, and will carry you along without drawing attention to itself.

The other is the character and his little project; I just needed to see where it went. The relationship between Georgie and Ant—and the difficult way to characterize it—is probably more of a driving force for me.

What does this book tell us about humanity?

It’s tricky to tackle this question because that’s one of the points of the book, and to really answer it would involve ruining the book.

But I can talk about some of the things it focuses on thematically. Chu explores the idea of experiences and how we need them. Particularly shared vs. solitary experiences. The “shared” aspect comes out a lot—sometimes it’s just two or three people, sometimes it’s a family, or a group of acquaintances. Sometimes it’s something as large and vague as “the Internet reacted to X.”

You may not find yourself resonating or agreeing with everything that Georgie and Ant conclude—or any of the other points of view they encounter along the way—but you’ll enjoy the experience of thinking about them.

So, what did I think about Nice Places?

I’m not wholly pleased by the way this book ends up—but outside of a Wayne’s World-esque “mega Happy Ending,” I’m not sure I would be. But I get what Chu did, and it’s both more fitting and narratively satisfying than what I think I wanted. Note, you should not read into my comment that this has a nasty or unhappy ending—just not a “mega Happy” one.

In the beginning of the novel, I didn’t get Georgie at all, and progressed only because I trusted Chu—I was mildly amused by some of what happened to him, and then around the time his whole plan was derailed, I got hooked. By the time his ridiculous plan was hatched, I was fully invested. And that stuck with me for most of the book. What Georgie and Ant went through together was just great, and I’d have happily read another 50-70 pages of it. I admit that there was a period toward the end where Georgie seemed to wallow in ennui and depression, and I had a hard time caring at that point—his ennui was contagious. But once he re-engaged, so did I.

I’m going to avoid saying much about Ant. But almost everything the book has to say comes from her (or in reaction to her), and as a character, she’s drawn in such a way that you’re primed and eager to hear her. So well done.

The other characters are drawn just as deeply as they’re required to be—and not one bit more. But they come in and out of the story so well that you see them as deeply constructed. I wouldn’t have minded more time with some of them, but I was satisfied.

I think I got so hung up on the bigger themes and ideas (at least in my head) that I haven’t done a great job of describing just how fun the book was (with the exception of the whole ennui bit I mentioned above). It was a very enjoyable read, it just got me thinking so much that I haven’t been able to focus on the Georgie’s goofy plot (and I was rooting for it the whole time).

This whole novel was so unexpected, so creative—it’s one of those books that you just can’t guess what provoked Chu to write it, what might have inspired him. I really don’t care, I’m just glad he did.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from the author in exchange for this post, which contains my honest opinion.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Go Gentle by Maria Semple: Was Never What I Expected to Be (and that’s a good thing)

By HCNewton

On May 27, 2026

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

Go Gentle

by Maria Semple

DETAILS:
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: April 14, 2026
Format: Hardcover
Length: 384 pg.
Read Date: May 16-19, 2026

It’s a thing Stoics do: meditate on worst-case scenarios. Which is not about working yourself into a neurotic doom loop. It’s about preparing for things not to go your way. So when they inevitably don’t, you can say, “I expected that.”

Think of it as inoculation against emotional extremes. Because who needs those?

What’s Go Gentle About?

Adora Hazzard has a pretty interesting life–she’s a philosopher whose entire job seems to be acting as a moral tutor to a couple of incredibly privileged boys who don’t seem to be applying much, if anything, of what she’s teaching. She’s also been a tutor, friend, sounding-board for their father, who absolutely pays attention.

She’s got primary custody of her teenage daughter, Viv–who is a pip. The two of them (and their dog) live in an Upper West Side apartment–and Adora and her friends are slowly taking over the floor of their building. Sharing expenses and resources among themselves. It’s really a clever set-up.

Then Adora runs into a man at the opera (or is it a concert? I think it was an opera–not important). This sets her life careening–almost out of control. She gets involved in international crime, possible terrorism, and more FBI/Interpol agents than you expect from the first half of the novel.

If it sounds like a thriller there–it’s absolutely not. It comes close a couple of times, but it avoids it overall. Trust me on that.

Do You Have to Know Anything About Philosophy to Read This?

No. What you need to know about Adora’s Stoicism is explained to you–in easy-to-understand bites (that’s kind of her schtick).

Might it be helpful to be familiar with Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and others–maybe some of the contemporary pop-Stoics? Sure. It could also prove distracting if you’d reflexively get pedantic about Adora’s take (and I’m not sure there’s a lot of room to do that, but I assume there’s some…there’s always room for a pedant)

Why did I pick this up? Why did I keep reading?

I picked it up because of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. It’s one of those books that has earned Semple an auto-read from me, no matter what I think about subsequent books. I don’t care what it’s about, I see her name, and it’s getting checked out from the library at least once.

I stuck with it because I was curious—I was curious about the protagonist and a couple of the minor subplots. But primarily, I couldn’t see where Semple was going with anything. Each segment of the book came as a surprise to me, propelling me on.

What does this book tell us about humanity?

It’s hard to put my finger exactly on it. But essentially, [protagonist] shows us how it’s dangerous to tie ourselves to one thing. In some flashback chapters we see what her life was like before she became interested in philosophy. Her career, arguably her life’s focus, was centered on one thing.

Since then, she’s been focused on happiness through virtue. Yes, she’s found a lot of success through that—personally, financially, career-wise. With a certainty about the arc for the rest of her life.

But her life in flashbacks is rocked—the foundation isn’t as strong as she thought. I don’t think her replacement foundation’s flaw isn’t in the strength—just in its scope. It doesn’t take into account the unexpected—in life or affections. A lot of her inner turmoil comes from realizing that virtue isn’t enough, and that she’s okay with it—even as she’s unsure where to go.

I think that’s something most/many/all of us have to go through a time or three in life. Semple’s depiction of that might be overly-compressed (“might” does a lot of work in that thought), but it’s very human. Very relatable.

So, what did I think about Go Gentle?

I was very satisfied with it. I can’t say I was blown away, and it certainly wouldn’t have earned Semple that auto-read ranking if it were my first novel by her. But it’s good.

Novels about philosophers have to rank pretty low on most reader’s interest list. It just doesn’t seem like something that involves excitement—something potentially important and interesting, but…it sounds like kind of book about a Hobbit who stays home. No one’s picking that up. Semple shows that’s a bad assumption–and she infuses a lot of Adora’s philosophy and approach to it throughout the book. Double-win.

I think we could’ve gotten more featuring the women in Adora’s life—she has gone to effort to create a home-environment featuring them. We get a lot of description of that, but we don’t see enough of it in action. I’d like to see a bit more of what her next chapter was—some more closure with the various plotlines.

But all of that is looking back and reflecting on the book. As I was reading, I wasn’t thinking about anything other than “where is Semple going with this?”, “Did Adora just do that?” “Viv seems like a great kid, a good character.” Things like that. My crititical reflexes didn’t engage once, just curiosity and appreciation.

Solid character work; a fairly unpredictable plot; a kind of lifestyle (well, multiple kinds) that few, if any, readers have seen themselves; and some very clever writing. Go Gentle is a book I’m glad I read and am pleased to recommend.

WWW Wednesday—May 27, 2026

By HCNewton

On May 27, 2026

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein	The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love edited by Alice Hoffman	Unread: A Memoir of Learning (and Loving) to Read on TikTok by Oliver James, read by James Shippy

I’ve heard countless times that the movie is different than Heinlein’s novel. And boy howdy, everyone was right. I think I’m liking the book–but Heinlein had some issues.

I think I made the right call reading The Best Dog in the World one essay at a time–if I’d gone cover-to-cover, it probably would’ve taken a day, and I’d have been checked out for most of it. Still enjoying it.

I’m digging Unread–I’d like a little more depth and a little less repetition, but it’s still a solid read.

What did you recently finish reading?


Robert B. Parker’s Booked by Alison Gaylin	Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell, read by Ann Marie Gideon

I think Gaylin tapped into a big trait (some would say flaw) of Sunny in a solid way in this book that Parker and Lupica didn’t. It was a fun read, too.

Last week, I said I was picking up Cultish because of Mrs. Irresponsible Reader. I didn’t tell her that, though, which is good, because I don’t have a lot of good things to say.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Remington Platypus by Steve Nash	After the Fall by Edward Ashton, read by John Pirhalla

I’ve been trying to get to Remington Platypus since the end of December. Finally! (The BookTempter’s TBR Challenge is helping)

I’m a little worried that After the Fall is going to be one of those books that’s better for my eyes than the ears, but I want to give it a shot.

Have you been reading anything good lately?

Fantasy with Friends: Are There Any Fantasy Films That Were Better Than the Book?

By HCNewton

On May 26, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

I didn’t get this up yesterday–you might have noticed things were busy around here. A day late and at least a quarter short, here’s my

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

Are there any fantasy books that you think had a movie adaptation that was even better than the book?

I can think of one right off the top of my head. It’s also one of the first movies I turn to when the conversation of “Adaptations vs. Books” comes up.

Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust.

If you’ve watched it and have read the novel, I can almost guarantee you agree. (if not, please tell me—I’ve only run into people who agree, I’d love to hear an argument for the book). I’d love to do a more in-depth comparison, but I don’t have time for a re-read of the book (I did flip through the illustrated version to see if anything jumped out), but after writing a draft of this, I did watch the movie—the power of suggestion. Not that it takes much for me to want to watch it, and I was so glad I indulged.

One of the more obvious strengths is the depiction of Captain Shakespeare, his crew, and the scenes that involve them. The film changed the tone and approach, making it more entertaining. And, then, come on…DeNiro.

The story is focused. The tone is sharpened. It feels like a fairy tale with 21st-century sensibilities. More than that–it’s a fairy tale come to life. The book is a fine, stand-alone fantasy, with some creative touches.

The casting was fantastic. How do you not swoon over Yvaine the instant she shows up? Not just the way they shot Daines, but the way she asserts herself the instant Tristan shows up.

Really, the only thing that’d make the film better is if Tristan got into a hallway battle. No one (including Vaughn and Cox) knew in 2007 just how good Cox would be in those. You think Humphrey revealed his cowardice when Tristan does that sword trick? Put the two of them in a hallway and watch Tristan run up a wall. (as hard as it is to imagine Cavill quaking at Cox)

Okay, I’m getting off target here. Basically, like I said the book was…fine. It comes across as less-fine once you watch the movie–or if you come to it after the movie. I’ve tried the book twice, just to see if it was the time I encountered it. I liked it moderately more the second time, but really, it just made me want to watch the movie.

I’m just rambling now–without re-reading the book, it’s hard to talk about the way it’s not as good as the adaptation. Generally, in every conceivable way the movie is better–but I’d prefer to be more detailed.

I’m really looking forward to some of the other posts in response to this prompt, I’m looking for some new movies to watch.

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LITERARY LOCALS: A Q&A About Writing in Idaho with Michael Weitz

By HCNewton

On May 26, 2026

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Literary Locals

Literary Locals logo
Intro

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Thanks! I’ve been a reader my whole life, I’m lucky to have had parents who actively encouraged it. My first book was a 9-page Star Wars rip-off I wrote for a 3^rd Grade class assignment. (Sorry, Mr. Lucas!) The first novel I wrote was horrible, but a great learning experience. It led to my Ray Gordon books; a trilogy of mysteries within the world of professional and amateur chess. My latest novel, We Be Dragons, is a coming-of-age story set in 1986 and takes readers on a journey into Dungeons & Dragons and a world where the power of friendship, the importance of imagination, and standing up for what’s right is what really matters in life. All my books are available on Amazon, and We Be Dragons is available at a few of our local area bookstores as well.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michael-Weitz/author/B00J496B38

Michael Weitz author site: www.michaelweitzbooks.com
I’m curious—how long of a gap was there between the please-don’t-come-after-him-Lucasfilm-lawyers story and that first novel? And then between that “horrible” book and getting to the point of feeling ready to release Ray Gordon #1?
I was in 3rd grade when I tried my hand at science fiction and the horrible manuscript I learned even more from was written when I was around 23. I believe I was around 25 or so when I wrote the first draft of Even Dead Men Play Chess, the first Ray Gordon book. It went through a few more drafts over the years, little tweaks and edits, and it wasn’t until I was 40 years old when it was picked up by a small publisher.

Are you a native Idahoan? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
I’m originally from Washington but grew up in a small town about a half hour away from Moscow, so I spent a lot of time there when I was growing up. What brought you to Idaho in the first place? I received a BS from the University of Idaho and really enjoyed living and working in Moscow during those years. I loved the area, but work and life took me on a roundabout path before landing back in Moscow for a time before moving to Boise where I’ve been enjoying life for more than 14 years now.
Another Vandal in the area—it can feel lonely sometimes.
Sometimes, but we’re out here!

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
I’m a member of MMMWriters. It’s through them that I have been able to attend book fairs and meet other authors and readers!
I don’t think I’ve heard of MMMWriters. Glad to hear about another group. Other than patching you into events to attend, what are some ways it’s helped you? Here’s you chance to recruit!
Their newsletters and website have some helpful articles geared toward writing, publishing, editing, and all things regionally “writerly”. You can find them online at mmmwriters.com.
Oh! I have heard about them a few times, but the name slipped my mind.

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
I attend the Idaho Author Book Fairs in the Spring and Fall, and any other similar events I can around the Treasure Valley. I love to support local shops and have enjoyed signing books at Barnes & Noble and Rediscovered Books in Boise, Book People in Moscow, and Shared Stories in Caldwell. These are great opportunities to meet readers and talk about my books as well as what they enjoy reading.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
I believe most of my readers are in the Pacific Northwest, but I have met people from New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Pennsylvania, and other places around the country who’ve read my work. I know a few copies of my books have been sold in Germany, England, and Brazil as well, so that’s fun!
You’re international! Nice!
Thank you! Now I need a T-shirt to go with it.

Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
The digital world has evened out the field for writers everywhere. I think any advantages or challenges for writers in the Treasure Valley are more personal rather than geographical. If an author’s work is all about Idaho, there’s a built-in audience – people enjoy reading about places they recognize, as well as about local history, but those stories may not capture the imaginations of outside readers. Or they might. But the Internet offers writers of all genres the same opportunities to get their work in front of readers.

Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
I think the themes I write about in We Be Dragons are certainly Idaho sensibilities. Strong friendships and standing up for what you believe is right, I see those here in Idaho.

One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
Besides mine? 😊 I’m not a huge western fan, but True Grit by Charles Portis has the Idaho spirit. If you’ve only seen the movie(s) you’re in for a treat.
There’s always room here for True Grit love. Good pick! I don’t know that I’d have thought about it as having an Idaho spirit, but…I see it.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it!
I did enjoy it! I hope you did as well. Thank you for thinking of me. Your questions made me think a bit more about myself and my writing.

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MUSIC MONDAY (Towel Day Edition): “Don’t Panic” by Clerics of Ohm

By HCNewton

On May 25, 2026

In News/Misc.

The Irresponsible Reader's Music Monday logo

Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.

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Don't Panic

Towel Day ’26: Some of my favorite Adams lines . . .

By HCNewton

On May 25, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Quotations, Science Fiction

(updated 5/25/26)

A Blue towel with the words Towel Day on it

There’s a great temptation here for me to go crazy and use so many quotations that I’d get in copyright trouble. I’ll refrain from that and just list some of his best lines . . .*

* The fact that this list keeps expanding from year to year says something about my position on flirting with temptation.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

This must be Thursday. . . I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

“You’d better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace. It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.”

“What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?”

“You ask a glass of water.”

(I’m not sure why, but this has always made me chuckle, if not actually laugh out loud. It’s just never not funny. It’s possibly the line that made me a fan of Adams)

He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.”

“Why, what did she tell you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen.

In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centuari. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before . . .

“Look,” said Arthur, “would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?”

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.

“Space,” [The Guide] says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space, listen…”

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N-N-T’Nix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian “chinanto/mnigs” which is ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan “tzjin-anthony-ks” which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.

Reality is frequently inaccurate.

Life is wasted on the living.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of flying. There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

(It goes on for quite a while after this—and I love every bit of it.)

“One of the interesting things about space,” Arthur heard Slartibartfast saying . . . “is how dull it is?”

“Dull?” . . .

“Yes,” said Slartibartfast, “staggeringly dull. Bewilderingly so. You see, there’s so much of it and so little in it.”

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Of course, one never has the slightest notion what size or shape different species are going to turn out to be, but if you were to take the findings of the latest Mid-Galactic Census report as any kind of accurate guide to statistical averages you would probably guess that the craft would hold about six people, and you would be right. You’d probably guessed that anyway. The Census report, like most such surveys, had cost an awful lot of money and told nobody anything they didn’t already know—except that every single person in the Galaxy had 2.4 legs and owned a hyena. Since this was clearly not true the whole thing eventually had to be scrapped.

Here was something that Ford felt he could speak about with authority. “Life,” he said, “is like a grapefruit.”

“Er, how so?”

“Well, it’s sort of orangy-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It’s got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast.”

“Is there anyone else out there I can talk to?”

Arthur had a swordfish steak and said it made him angry. He grabbed a passing waitress by the arm and berated her. “Why’s this fish so bloody good?” he demanded, angrily.

“Please excuse my friend,” said Fenchurch to the startled waitress. “I think he’s having a nice day at last.”

Mostly Harmless

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Fall, though, is the worst. Few things are worse than fall in New York. Some of the things that live in the lower intestines of rats would disagree, but most of the things that live in the lower intestines of rats are highly disagreeable anyways, so their opinion can and should be discounted.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

There is no point in using the word ‘impossible’ to describe something that has clearly happened.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.

Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.

Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.

(I’ve often been tempted to get a tattoo of this)

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

There are some people you like immediately, some whom you think you might learn to like in the fullness of time, and some that you simply want to push away from you with a sharp stick.

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, ‘As pretty as an airport.’

The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.

She stared at them with the worried frown of a drunk trying to work out why the door is dancing.

It was his subconscious which told him this—that infuriating part of a person’s brain which never responds to interrogation, merely gives little meaningful nudges and then sits humming quietly to itself, saying nothing.

As she lay beneath a pile of rubble, in pain, darkness, and choking dust, trying to find sensation in her limbs, she was at least relieved to be able to think that she hadn’t merely been imagining that this was a bad day. So thinking, she passed out.

The Last Chance to See

“So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly?” I asked.

He looked at me as if I were stupid. “You die, of course. That’s what deadly means.”

I’ve never understood all this fuss people make about the dawn. I’ve seen a few and they’re never as good as the photographs, which have the additional advantage of being things you can look at when you’re in the right frame of mind, which is usually around lunchtime.

I have the instinctive reaction of a Western man when confronted with the sublimely incomprehensible. I grab my camera and start to photograph it.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

The aye-aye is a nocturnal lemur. It is a very strange-looking creature that seems to have been assembled from bits of other animals. It looks a little like a large cat with a bat’s ears, a beaver’s teeth, a tail like a large ostrich feather, a middle finger like a long dead twig and enormous eyes that seem to peer past you into a totally different world which exists just over your left shoulder.

One of the characteristics that laymen find most odd about zoologists is their insatiable enthusiasm for animal droppings. I can understand, of course, that the droppings yield a great deal of information about the habits and diets of the animals concerned, but nothing quite explains the sheer glee that the actual objects seem to inspire.

I mean, animals may not be intelligent, but they’re not as stupid as a lot of human beings.

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.

I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.

And a couple of lines I’ve seen in assorted places, articles, books, and whatnot

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.

A learning experience is one of those things that says, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”

The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.

Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there’s no point trying to look in that direction because it won’t be coming from there.

Towel Day ’26: Scattered Thoughts about Reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy

By HCNewton

On May 25, 2026

In A-B, Authors, Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, Fiction, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(updated and revised this 5/25/26)

I’ve been trying for a few years now to come up with a tribute to Adams. This isn’t quite what I had in mind, but it’s a start. In my mind, this is a work in progress (a multiple-year project), but I’m posting it anyway. Next year’s version will be better—or at least more complete.

Some time in 7th or 8th grade (I believe), I was at a friend’s house, and his brother let us try his copy of the text-based Hitchhiker’s Guide game, and we were no good at it at all. Really, it was embarrassing. However, his brother had a copy of the first novel, and we all figured that the novel held the keys we needed for success with the game (alas, it did not help us one whit). My friends all decided that I’d be the one to read the book and come back in a few days as an expert.

I fell in love with the book almost instantly, and I quickly forgot about the game. Adams’ irreverent style rocked my world—could people actually get away with saying some of these things? His skewed take on the world, his style, his humor…and a depressed robot, too! It was truly love at first read. As I recall, I started re-reading it as soon as I finished it—the only time in my life I’ve done that sort of thing.

Also, I finally understood that song, “Marvin, I Love You,” that I kept hearing on Dr. Demento.

It was one of those experiences that, looking back, I can say shaped my reading and thinking for the rest of my life (make of that what you will). Were my life the subject of a Doctor Who or Legends of Tomorrow episode, it’d be one of those immutable fixed points. I got my hands on the next three books as quickly as I could (the idea of a four-volume trilogy was one of the funniest ideas I’d encountered up to that point in my life), and devoured them. I do know that I didn’t understand all of the humor, several of the references shot past me at the speed of light, and I couldn’t appreciate everything that was being satirized. But what I did understand, I thought was brilliant. Not only did I find it funny, the series taught me about comedy—how to construct a joke, how to twist it in ways a reader wouldn’t always expect, and when not to twist but to go for the obviously funny idea. The trilogy also helped me to learn to see the absurdity in life.

One of the big lessons that HHGTTG taught me was something I didn’t realize for quite some time- I noticed and talked about it, but I didn’t really realize what was going on. Whether in the game, the novel, the TV show, or the radio show (my local library getting those tapes was a revelation)–Adams took several key scenes and put them in different order, almost completely intact (although with some different jokes sometimes). Each time he did that, it was to play to the strength of the various media. I learned later that he did this for a couple of other versions, and then the movie. When it comes to story–you can keep the big items and play with them to get them to serve your aim, without doing any real damage to the core of your story/point. Like I said, it took a while for me to get the vocabulary to describe that–or to spend any time thinking about it beyond, “hey, that’s cool how he did that.” It’s just one of those things that stuck deep in my mind.

Outside of one family member–HHGTTG was my first exposure to an atheist. I mean, I knew they existed–the way I knew Australia existed. I’d read about it in books, maybe seen it on a TV show or something (hey, I was a kid from a small town in Southern Idaho in the 80s). But here was a guy wearing that on his sleeve–but he made a joke about it. Well, he made a few jokes–several by the end of the trilogy (including at least one that undercut them all). I didn’t threaten my young faith or rattle me, it was more of a “huh, so that’s what they’re like.” Nothing scary, just silly. I also have to say–again, sheltered kid from Idaho pre-Internet–that one of those jokes involved someone getting killed at a zebra crossing. It wasn’t until a few reads in that I started to wonder if that was actually a thing, and not another of his Adams’ jokes about a special road crossing for those particular animals. It was a learning experience for me in many ways.

Years later, when the final volume (by Adams) was released, I’d already cemented what I thought about the books from these frequent re-reads. I’m not sure that Mostly Harmless changed things much (except for making me think for the first time that maybe I didn’t want him to write more in this series). His non-Hitchhiker’s work illustrated that he was capable of making you see things in a new light–either with a smile or a sense of regret—even when he wasn’t writing the trilogy, even when he was writing non-fiction. It was never the setting or the genre—it was Adams.

But here on Towel Day—as with most of the time I talk about Adams (but I need to change that), it comes down to where I started—the Trilogy. I read the books (particularly the first) so many times that I can quote significant portions of them, and frequently do so without noticing that I’m doing that. I have (at this time) two literary-inspired tattoos, one of which is the planet logo* featured on the original US covers. In essence, I’m saying that Adams and the series that made him famous have had an outsized influence on my life and are probably my biggest enduring fandom. If carrying around a (massively useful) piece of cloth for a day in some small way honors his memory? Sure, I’m in.

So, Happy Towel Day, You Hoopy Froods.

* I didn’t know it at the time, but Adams didn’t like that guy. Whoops.

Towel Day ’26: Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?

By HCNewton

On May 25, 2026

In A-B, Authors, Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, Fiction, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(updated and revised this 5/25/26)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Towel Day, for the few who don’t know, is the annual celebration of Douglas Adams’ life and work. It was first held two weeks after his death, fans were to carry a towel with them for the day to use as a talking point to encourage those who have never read HHGTTG to do so, or to just converse with someone about Adams. Adams is one of that handful of authors that I can’t imagine I’d be the same without having encountered/read/re-read/re-re-re-re-read, and so I do my best to pay a little tribute to him each year, even if it’s just carrying around a towel. TowelDay.org is the best collection of resources on the day.

In commemoration of this date, here’s most of what I’ve written about Adams. I’ve struggled to come up with new material to share for Towel Day over the years, mostly sticking with updating and revising existing posts. And, this year is no exception. A few years back, I did a re-read of all of Adams’ (completed) fiction. For reasons beyond my ken (or recollection), I didn’t get around to blogging about the Dirk Gently books, but I did do the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, The Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish
Mostly Harmless
I had a thing or two to say about the 40th Anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I took a look at the 42nd Anniversary Illustrated Edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I should also point to a posts I wrote about Douglas Adams’ London by Yvette Keller and 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams edited by Kevin Jon Davies—both are great ways of filling out one’s understanding of Adams and his work. I have to mention the one book that Adams/Hitchhiker’s aficionado needs to read is Don’t Panic by Neil Gaiman, David K. Dickson and MJ Simpson.

If you’re more in the mood for a podcast, I’d suggest The Waterstones Podcast How We Made: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—I’ve listened to several podcast episodes about this book, and generally roll my eyes at them. But this is just fantastic. Were it available, I’d listen to a Peter Jackson-length version of the episode.