Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Dirk Gently Is at It Again . . . Sort of

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

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This one started off much less confusingly (and weirdly) than the first book, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, though it didn’t necessarily end less confusingly. Part of the problem is that the ending seemed rushed, as though Adams were trying to get it done in a hurry, and he sacrificed quality and clarity to do so. Once again, the book doesn’t really seem to be about Dirk Gently, although he is a main character, and this time he doesn’t seem to do as much in terms of affecting the resolution. There are two mysteries that he is trying to solve. The first is […]

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3/18/2018 's CBR10 Review No:6 |

There Was a Horse in the Bathroom

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

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This was a weird one. It started off weird and although it made much more sense by the end, I still had to look up explanations for some of what happened. A few questions remain, some of which are too spoilery to describe. Speaking of, how does one describe this book? That’s more than just a rhetorical question – I’m really not sure. The first several chapter seem disjointed, but later you learn how they are all connected (although I still don’t understand the first line of “This time there would be no witnesses,” so if any of you have […]

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3/2/2018 's CBR10 Review No:5 |

Not another thing, please

And another thing... by Eoin Colfer

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I forget where I read it, only that it is not my own observation, but someone put my most frequent problem with fantasy and sci-fi best: the more made up words it contains, the less likely I am to enjoy the book. This is a fairly short book that is long on nonsense. My eyes just glazed over half the text for a lack of intelligible prose to grab on to. A continuation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series written by Douglas Adams, it took me twice as long to read its 275 pages than an average book […]

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5/29/2017 's CBR9 Review No:20 |

Mostly Charmless

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

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You can get the whole idea of “Dirk Gently” and his so-called detective agency from one line. Referring to Sherlock Holmes’ famous precept that “once you eliminate the impossible, whatever’s left, however improbable, must be the truth” Dirk replies, “I prefer not to eliminate the impossible.” That’s a clever line, but also rather exasperating. That’s Dirk Gently, and this book, in a nutshell. I laughed quite a few times at some inspired bit of absurdity or an ingenious turn of phrase, but mostly I found myself irritated with the story and it’s title character. The framework around the holistic detective […]

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2/16/2017 's CBR9 Review No:7 |

Lost Between a Doctor and a Towel

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

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For some, Douglas Adams is just the guy who wrote that weird book about towels, the Universe and everything else, but a few might know him for what he really is: a great sci-fi writer, working on several episodes of Doctor Who and, of course, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. In Dirk Gently, we get to see, as described by the author “a kind of ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic, mainly concerned with mud, music and quantum mechanics”. It basicly sums up the idea behind the plot that revolves around the murder of Gordon Way, very rich, very powerfull and very annoying, his […]

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1/11/2017 's CBR9 Review No:2 |

Better than the first one; still not as good as Hitchhiker

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

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This is not really a sequel, as it has nothing at all to do with the first Dirk Gently book. This is a totally new adventure: one that makes slightly more sense than the first one, but still isn’t as good as the Hitchhiker series. That seems unfair, though – what could possibly be as good as Hitchhiker? Kate is an American living in London who becomes embroiled with a large blond man who claims to be Thor. Why Thor takes a shine to her is kind of glossed over, but hey! It’s funny, so who cares. Dirk Gently is […]

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12/2/2016 's CBR8 Review No:22 |

Fundamental Interconnectedness of high school flashbacks

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

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I decided to reread this before the BBC show started, which turned out to be totally unnecessary. I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode of the show, but it has nothing to do with the book, except for one line about the “fundamental interconnectedness of all things,” and maybe some passing references to pizza and Thor. Still gonna watch, still gonna enjoy the book. Dirk Gently doesn’t actually show up in his own book until page 85, and then he disappears again for a while. This is really Richard’s story, and we follow him as his life gets weirder and weirder […]

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10/24/2016 's CBR8 Review No:19 |

“To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, Martin Freeman (narrator)

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After discovering that I had not, in fact, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy I rectified that this year, and giving the audiobook version a spin I was excited. The story I was familiar with came alive and Stephen Fry was simply delightful as the narrator. I was so enthralled that I immediately downloaded the second book in the series The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, from Audible without thinking much about it. After finishing Pronto I decided to revisit the satirical world of Douglas Adams and set out to listen to another leg of the journey […]

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9/26/2015 's CBR7 Review No:82 |


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