The Most Important Book I Ever Read: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Writers love to talk about their influences. I’m no different. I can unashamedly point to the writers that have inspired me over the years and the books I’ve read that have stuck with me.
It may sound somewhat trite and a tad immature to admit this, but there’s one book that had a bigger impact on me than any other. Perhaps it’s because I read it at a relatively young and impressionable age, or at a moment when I was more open to being inspired by what I was reading than I’d had before. Whatever the reason, this is the one that opened up whole new worlds for me, new possibilities in terms of what could be done with the written word.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I’d kind of heard of Douglas Adams’ series of Hitchhiker’s books before a friend gave me a single edition with the first four books in the trilogy, but hadn’t read them up to that moment. As I dove in and began following Arthur Dent and his haphazard travels across space with a collection of other misfits and oddballs I was more in love with a book than I’d ever been before. I was hooked instantly and devoured the whole thing in less than a month, anxiously awaiting the eventual release of the fifth book and then going on to read Adams’ Dirk Gently books and more.
Over the next 30 years I’d read hundreds of books, everything from pop novels to literary classics, histories, self-help guides and more. I’ve certainly been influenced to various degrees by all that. But Hitchhiker’s continues to stand out.
Perhaps that’s because I’ve always been fascinated and intrigued by humor and comedy writing in a way I’m not with other genres. When I watch Monty Python or The Marx Brothers I’m rapt by the writing even more than the performance. Before timing and delivery can be worked out, all that needs to be on the page in one form or another. One or more people have to decide that something *sounds* funny on paper, arranging and rearranging the words until they work. If you ask me there was no finer writer than George Carlin, who clearly showed a love of words and how they work.
I can’t say I’m a particularly funny writer. I’ve dabbled in writing straight-up comedy and certainly try to inject a sense of humor into most things (where appropriate) but “comedy” has never been my strong suit. So it may seem odd that this is cited by me as such an important influence.
It’s not about inspiring a specific kind of writing, though. Sure, there are those who worked to hone their sports-writing skills after reading Bob Ryan or someone else. And Jimmy Breslin inspired a whole generation of writers, reporters and columnists, as did Mike Royko, Studs Terkel, Roger Ebert and countless others, each one trying to be their own best version of their idols.
For me, though, it was more about the power of words arranged in a particular order and how they could be used to move people. Reading Hitchhiker’s, I realized, perhaps for the first time, how hard writing was but how it could bring someone such joy.
That book is still a touchpoint for me. There are plenty of others that I’ve admired over the years. I couldn’t begin to describe how beautiful Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It was for me. Or how much John Steinbeck’s writing moved me. But Hitchhiker’s remains a testament in my mind to how writing isn’t just about getting the words right but about getting the right words in the right order at the right time. It’s an alchemy that is, for me, unique and amazing.
Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.
