Part of the Twenty Books in Twenty Days series.

As I type this I am wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Don’t Panic” on it. Douglas Adams [affiliate link] was always going to make a “best of” list from me. Might as well get it out of the way at the start. The combination of science fiction, satire, and the quality of the writing just works for me. I am one of those people who is forever quoting the books. Sorry, not sorry.

I can’t make up my mind about “And Another Thing…,” Eoin Colfer’s book, which is the sixth Hitchhikers novel, the first not written by Douglas Adams.

On the one hand I wanted to give it a fair chance, try to judge it on its merits rather than simply as a H2G2 book not by Adams. On the other, it’s clearly not by Douglas Adams. It has the same characters. It’s clearly by someone who is a Hitchhiker fan and some things — like the names of places and things — feel spot on.

• May 25, 2001: Towel Day Honors Hitchhiker Author Adams – Do you have your towel with you today?
• Twenty Years Later, Remembering Jim Henson – Still funny…
• Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 – “I wish I had more time… but the weather wouldn’t co-operate. Typical Iceland.” Really nice time-lapse photography taken in Iceland.

• Palm Pre smartphone – “So you’re after a smartphone, you’ve got money to burn and an obvious decision to make: this or the iPhone. No other touchscreen smartphone is even in the running. The Pre has some obvious advantages. It’s a bit smaller than the iPhone and ‘Synergy’ works well, which could prove useful if you’re more familiar with Facebook than the concept of Gmail or an Exchange server. But weigh it against the iPhone and it’s hard to recommend.”
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide Turns 30 – Still one of my favourite books.
• Cat registered as hypnotherapist – To be fair, cats do seem to convince people to pet them and feed them without any apparent pay-back. Maybe they do hypnotise them?