I don't think you have to be a student to like Douglas Adam's work, but it is often associated with students for some reason. I read the hitchhiker trilogy (increasingly misnamed, as it was a quintilogy by then!) in highschool (c.1990-91), but i remember a lot of people reading it for the first time at Uni'. Not an Adam's fan, MFG? Not even Dirk Gently?
I've met several. There again- I've spent most of my adult life in the US where the girls tend to be a bit more prudish than in the UK. Some girls are very self-conscious here and are worried they may not taste like sugar plums or smell like Lavender blossoms down there so they'd rather not enjoy those pleasures. Here in the South- sex is something to be ashamed of and anything beyond missionary, for many women, is the devils work. Not all like that of course... the problem is that those that arn't are frequently trailer trash... very few in the happy-medium.
I read the first two at college, Hitchhiker's and Restaurant, but they were kinda simple comedy and formulaic sci-fi compared to the more mature work of Kurt Vonnegut.
That is unfortunate, really. On the upside, prudish girls can be talked around, and there are some hotties in America!
Adams and Vonnegut are complete opposites. Adams is pretty slapstick and Vonnegut is very dry and sarcastic. Both are pretty good- but with each author- resist the temptation to read more than one of the novels in a row... I read the hitchhikers "trilogy" one week- loved it at the start- wondered why I was torturing myself by the end... but was determined to finish them all in one go... should have spread it out.
Absolutely... There were girls I dated who refused to let me do it in the start- but loved it by the end. Oh, and Satan, if you're reading this- you're welcome. Regarding "hot-girls"- hot girls that know they're hot are usually obnoxious. I've found hot-ones that had self-esteem issues and didn't think they were attractive made the best dates.
Fair enough. The works of Adams and Pratchett are not for everyone. I love Sci-fi, but I haven't read Vonnegut, yet. I've worked in science since University and I was warned by various scientist sci-fi fans that Vonnegut was one of the reasons there was a lot of misunderstood science in the public domain. The evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould was quite anti-Vonnegut and especially with his views on evolution in a lot of his books. As I haven't read them yet I can't comment, personally, but I'd be willing to read them with an open mind.
