Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
'So this is it,' said Arthur, 'we are going to die.'
'Yes,' said Ford, 'except … no! Wait a minute!' he suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. 'What's this switch?' he cried.
'What? Where?' cried Arthur twisting round.
'No, I was only fooling,' said Ford, 'we are going to die after all.'
It was a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away … no, sorry, scrub that. But it was a long time ago that I first heard The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It started life as a radio show, and at the time the only radio I had was the radio in the car. So when the show came on, I would go up onto the street and sit in my car, and roll about hysterically. God knows what passers-by thought. But it was hilarious.
The decades have moved on (about two of them, I guess), but something like this (completely off the planet, and off the wall) doesn't date. I introduced my teenage son to them, and though he didn't roll about laughing (actually I've never seen him roll around laughing), nevertheless he enjoyed it so much, that he read the book and its sequels often enough that we can quote bits to each other (as appropriate in the conversation — you're wondering what sort of conversations we have, aren't you?).
The best by far was the first, but Douglas Adams went on to write two more slim volumes to round out the trilogy, and then, much later, for the compulsive (and I admit I'm one), added a couple more books to the series, but it has to be said they're not up to the standard of the original trilogy.
You can find some really good quotes from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy here: http://www.some-guy.com/quotes/adams.html
